A\   «     .  Ns 


*\'-N'Nis-      i 


;/  -  ^'^>-i:v^^ 


THE  LIBRARY 

OF 

THE  UNIVERSITY 

OF  CALIFORNIA 

LOS  ANGELES 


GIFT  OF 

Mrs.  Marion  Keiper 


PLEASANTRIES 


OF 


EliGLISH  COURTS  jlND  LAWYEIiS 


JOHN     CORDY    JEAFFRESON 


OF    THE    INNER    TEMFLB 


JERSEY  CITY: 
FREDERICK  D.  LINN  &  COMPANY, 

47    MOXTGUMEKV    StrEET. 


0 


i 

CONTENTS. 


PAGE 

I, — The  Lord  Chancellors, i 

II. — Lawyers  in  Arms, 60 

III. — Riding  and  Dining 92 

IV. — Lawyers  at  Home 125 

V. — Loves  of  the  Lawyers, 167 

VI. — Fees  and  Bribes 215 

VII. — Gowns  and  Wigs, 280 


0    7 


THE    LORD   CHANCELLORS. 


CHAPTER      I. 


WELL  planned  and  well  written,  the  story  of  the 
Great  Seal  would  be  a  rare  story. 

It  calls  up  the  dead  of  eight  silent  centuries,  placing 
before  the  mind  much  of  that  which  is  most  beautiful 
and  noble,  and  not  a  little  of  that  which  is  most  to  be 
deplored  in  the  growth  of  England's  greatness.  The 
poet's  song  and  the  soldier's  fame  give  music  and  bright- 
ness to  the  atmosphere  that  covers  and  surrounds  the 
mystic  emblem  of  sovereign  will.  For  seven-and-twenty 
generations  fair  women  and  brave  men  have  submitted 
meekly  to  its  influence  and  bowed  before  it  reverentially. 
More  than  a  mere  symbol  of  the  ruler's  power,  it  hrii 
been  honored  as  the  power  itself  by  the  flatteries  of 
pliant  courtiers,  the  prayers  of  wretched  supplicLnts,  the 
hopes  of  ambition,  and  the  fears  of  cowardice. 

For  twice  four  hundred  years  it  has  witnessed  the 
most  stirring  scenes,  held  parley  with  the  most  famous 
personages,  and  been  an  actor  in  the  grandert  episodes 
of  history.  The  right  to  guard  it  from  danger  has  been 
placed  amongst  the  chief  honors  of  a  highly-civilized 
people  ;  and  to  win  that  honor,  and  wear  it  for  a  few 
brief  days,  accomplished,  resolute,  and  brilliant  men 
nave  in   each  generation   striven  with  fierce  rivalry  and 


2  PLEASANTRIES    OF    ENGLISH 

heroic  steadfastness.  Through  days  of  toil  and  nights 
of  study  ;  through  long  years  of  exertion,  disappoint- 
ment, and  despair  ;  against  the  difficulties  of  debt,  and 
mental  distress,  and  feeble  health  ;  with  an  ascetic  ab- 
stinence from  pleasure,  and  with  a  terrible  concentration 
of  all  their  powers  upon  the  one  desired  object,  they 
have  striven  for  that  prize,  and  striven  in  vain.  Boot- 
less their  perseverence  and  self-denial,  their  learning  and 
integrity,  their  sacrifices  and  unconquerable  will  !  Van- 
quished by  the  intensity  of  their  own  exertions,  or 
worsted  by  some  of  those  many  circumstances  and  ad- 
verse influences  w'hich  at  times  stay  the  speed  of  the 
swift  and  defeat  the  strong,  they  failed  to  achieve  their 
purpose.  They  "  dropped  under,"'  and  the  mighty  tide 
of  life  which  rolled  over  them  is  their  nameless  grave. 

Many  are  the  times  that  Fortune  has  wrenched  the 
Seal  from  a  firm  grasp  and  dropped  it  into  a  feeble  hand  ; 
many  a  time  has  she  led  a  knave  to  the  Marble  Chair, 
and  cast  a  smile  of  derision  on  men  too  honest  to  woo 
her  with  falsehood  ;  anon  she  has  turned  her  back  on  tlie 
entire  crowd  of  eager  aspirants,  and  with  beautiful 
malice  in  her  eyes  has  thrown  the  prize  into  the  lap  of 
a  simpleton  v/ho  had  never  expected  to  touch  it,  had 
never  even  asked  for  it. 

Scarcely  less  startling  than  the  most  striking  phe- 
nomena of  science  are  the  diverse  effects  which  have 
been  wrought  in  Keepers  of  the  Great  Seal  by  the  mere 
custody  of  that  royal  property,  To  some  its  acquisition 
has  been  admission  to  new  life,  to  others  the  first  tri- 
umph of  office  has  been  followed  by  speedy  death. 

It  might  be  told  how  men,  still  in  the  middle  t^rm  of 
life — still  in  the  sunshine  of  younger  manhood — have 
snatched  the  coveted  prize  ere  care  liad  plowed  furrows 
in  their  faces,  or  time  had  placed  frost  upon  their  heads. 
It    might    be    told     how    these    singularly    lucky    and 


COURTS    AND    LAWYERS.  3 

strangely  unfortunate  men  have  borne  away  the  crimson 
purse  before  envious  eyes,  and  from  that  time  forth  have 
never  known  a  night  of  peaceful  slumber — an  hour  of 
perfect  repose.  The  story  might  reveal  how  one,  more 
■uccessful  and  wretched  than  all  his  fellows,  could  not 
endure  the  burden  of  that  bauble  :  how  its  weight,  so 
trifling  in  the  scales,  was  immeasurable  in  his  breast  and 
ui>on  his  conscience  ;  how  he  fled  from  the  eyes  of  men, 
and  hiding  his  face,  sought  the  mercy  of  Death — and 
fraud  it. 

But  more  marvelous  than  aught  and  all  that  it  has 
done  are  the  vicissitudes  which  the  Great  Seal  has  expe- 
rienced, the  perils  which  it  has  encountered,  the  deaths 
ivUich  it  has  survived !  No  charmed  life  of  fairy  lore 
surpasses  in  wonders  and  incredible  incidents  the  life  of 
th?  Great  Seal.  It  has  seen  much  service  in  foreign 
lands  ;  when  the  Crusaders  stirred  all  Europe  it  started 
in  pomp  and  glittering  magnificence  upon  the  road  for 
the  Holy  Land  ;  it  has  smiled  at  the  feasts  of  kings,  and 
starved  with  hunger  in  the  garrets  of  continental  cities  ; 
in  vain  have  Earth,  Fire,  Air  and  Water  banded  to- 
gether for  its  destruction  ;  it  has  sunk  to  the  bottom  of 
the  sea,  and  has  risen  again  on  the  tops  of  the  waves  ; 
men  compassed  its  death  by  hurling  it  into  the  Thames, 
but:  it  asked  help  of  a  waterman,  through  whose  timely 
aid  it  v/as  restored  to  the  King's  House  ;  thieves  have 
stolen  it,  melted  it  down,  and  sold  it  for  old  metal  ;  it 
has  been  buried  beneath  the  ground,  but  friendly  hands 
exhumed  it  and  reinstated  in  honor ;  over  and  over 
again  ruffians,  armed  with  murderous  instruments,  have 
broken  it  into  minute  pieces — but  still  the  Great  Seal  is 
\yith  us,  entire,  sound,  beauteous,  flawless  as  ever. 


PLEASANTRIES    OF    ENGLISH 


CHAPTER      II. 

IT  was  the  humor  of  the  last  chapter  to  speak  of  the 
Great  Seal,  as  though  there  had  been  no  more  than 
one  Great  Seal  made  since  the  kings  of  England  first  be- 
gan to  place  their  royal  wishes  on  sealed  records.  That 
each  sovereign  has  used  his  own  peculiar  seal,  and  that 
the  opening  of  each  reign  had  witnessed  an  actual  or 
formal  destruction  of  the  last  monarch's  broad  device, 
are  facts  familiar  to  most  persons  ;  but  it  is  less  gener- 
ally known  that  English  kings  have  changed  their  seals, 
and  even  kept  two  or  more  great  seals  in  use  at  the 
same  time.  There  are  also  those  who  have  read  certain 
passages  of  English  history  with  conscientious  care,  but 
have  omitted  to  give  due  thought  to  the  grave  embar- 
rassments and  laughable  difficulties  which  have  arisen 
from  the  existence  of  rival  seals,  or  the  customary  uco 
of  a  Great  Seal  the  genuineness  and  legal  validity  of 
which  have  been  called  in  question. 

As  becomes  men  who  are  about  to  consider  a  great 
historic  subject,  let  the  readers  of  this  volume  transport 
themselves  to  the  tranquil  ages  of  the  past,  and  glance  at 
seals  designed  and  graven  in  times  when  art  was  low  a'ld 
learning  was  infrequent.  There  is  no  need  to  analyze  the 
terra  sigillata  of  the  Egyptians,  or  to  speculate  as  to  the 
proportions  of  clay  and  common  wax  that  entered  into 
the  compositions  of  the  cement  used  by  Jewish  doctcirs 
in  olden  time.  Whether  Roman  scholars  preferred  seals 
of  paste  to  seals  of  carefully  prepared  fuller's-earth  ;  by 
what  slow  gradations  the  cumbrous  lump  of  dough  was 
refined  into  the  delicate  wafer  ;  whether  yellow  or  white 
wax  has  higher  claims  to  respect  on  the  score  of  an- 
tiquity ;  and  how  far  the  viscous  property  of  gum  was 
turned  ;:o  account  by  writers  of  secret  letters  betwixt  the 


COURTS    AND     LAWYERS.  ■$ 

days  of  Jeremiah  and  the  labors  of  St.  John,  are  ques- 
tions for  discussion  in  another  place.  Antiquaries  ear- 
nest in  the  study  of  diplomatics  may  vex  their  brains 
in  the  study  of  these  obscure  points  ;  but  the  not  labor- 
ious students  of  these  light  volumes  shall  go  no  further 
back  than  a  bright  sunny  morning  in  the  year  of  our 
Lord  one  thousand  and  forty-two,  or  thereabouts,  when 
Edward  the  Confessor  sat  in  solemn  state  "  for  his  por- 
trait." On  rare  occasions  certain  prior  Anglo-Saxon 
kings  had  executed  deeds  by  sealing  them  with  their 
seals  ;  but  learned  William  Dugdale,  Knight,  rightly  says 
in  his  "  Origines  Juridicia'es:"  "But  admitting  these  few 
examples,  most  certain  it  is,  that  as  Sealing  of  Charters 
in  the  time  of  our  Saxon  kings  was  not  common,  so  the 
office  of  chancellor  was  not  originally  denominated 
from  the  keeping  of  the  king's  seal  ;  and  that  for  a  con- 
stant succession  of  seals  we  are  not  to  look  higher  than 
King  Edward  the  Confessor." 

The  Confessor  was  notable  for  length  of  limb,  and  he 
was  induced  to  put  himself  on  a  low  seat,  which,  had  he 
occupied  a  throne  of  suitable  height,  might  have  served 
him  as  a  footstool.  Moreover,  he  sat  with  his  face  full 
towards  the  artist.  Consequently  his  knees,  sticking  up 
in  close  proximity  to  his  chin,  were  the  most  prominent 
points  of  his  figure  ;  and  the  too  faithful  portrait  makes 
him  resemble  a  trussed  fowl  rather  than  a  creature 
fashioned  after  the  likeness  of  divinity.  Had  the  evil 
ended  with  the  production  of  one  unsightly  caricature, 
no  great  harm  would  have  been  done,  but  unfortunately 
the  Confessor's  picture  was  accepted  as  a  guide  by  suc- 
ceeding artists,  who  in  their  likenesses  of  later  sovereigns 
felt  themselves  bound  to  adhere  to  the  ungraceful  prece- 
dent. Conservative  sentiment  converting  the  blunder 
into  a  rule,  tiie  kings  and  queens  of  England  throughout 
many  centuries  were  trussed  in  like  fashion,  and  until  the 


6  PLEASANTRIES    OF    ENGLISH 

middle  of  the  eighteenth  century  were  made  to  grin  over 
t'ncir  anguiar  knees,  like  so  many  paupers  fast  set  with 
rheumatism.  In  the  equestrian  image  of  William  the 
Conqueror  an  effort  was  made  in  a  happier  direction  ;  but 
the  Norman's  war-steed  having  closer  resemblance  to  a 
greyhound  than  a  charger,  and  his  legs  being  drawn  as 
long  and  thin  as  spears,  the  effect  is  not  altogether  satis- 
factory. For  many  a  day  no  attempt  was  made  to 
straighten  the  legs  of  the  sitting  monarchs.  The  awk- 
wardness is  displeasing  in  the  men,  but  in  the  women  it 
is  offensive.  The  aspect  of  bloody  Mary,  for  instance, 
as  she  sits  by  the  side  of  Philip,  her  consort,  confirms 
every  satire  on  her  want  of  feminine  grace.  Queen 
Elizabeth  is  preserved  from  ridicule  by  the  expanse  of  her 
stiff  petticoat,  that  leaves  it  open  to  discussion  whether 
she  is  sitting  or  standing;  but  blushing  chivalry  looks 
away  from  poor  Queen  Anne,  on  whose  fat  legs  the  drap- 
ery lies  in  huge,  unsightly  rucks.  A  better  state  of  things 
commenced  during  the  Hanoverian  dynasty.  George  I., 
indeed,  fronts  his  liege  subjects,  clumsily  sitting,  knees 
foremost,  like  a  butcher  on  his  block;  but  George  III., 
anxious  to  win  the  respect  of  a  populace  dangerously  in- 
clined to  laugh  at  Divine  Right,  offered  a  not  ungainly 
side  view  to  his  limner,  and  George  IV.  had  too  much 
good  taste  not  to  follow  his  father's  example.  The  sailor- 
king,  as  he  is  presented  on  his  broad  seal,  enthroned 
and  robed,  is  most  artistically  placed,  and  is  a  perfect  pic- 
ture of  a  royal  gentleman  ;  and  by  the  gentle  beauty  and 
exquisite  grace  depicted  on  the  present  Great  Seal  —  a 
triumph  of  art — future  ages  will  be  reminded  of  that  fair 
Christian  lady,  for  whose  long  life  and  safety  all  good 
Englishmen  of  thes^  passing  days  offer  fervent  prayers. 
The  exact  year  in  which  the  Confessor's  seal  was  made 
is  unknown.  There  is  no  proof  that  it  existed  during 
the  official  life  of  Edward's  first  chancellor,  Leofric  ;  but 


COURTS    AND    LAWYERS.  7 

in  A.  D.  1045  his  second  chancellor,  Wulwius,  affixed  it 
to  a  royal  charter  quoted  by  Dugdale  ;  and  the  seal  was 
used  in  like  manner  by  his  third  chancellor  Reimbaldus. 
Thus,  at  the  outset  of  its  history,  the  Seal  was  entrusted 
to  the  care  of  that  officer,  whose  duties  (however  hum- 
ble at  their  beginning)  caused  him  to  maintain  a  close 
and  constant  intercourse  with  the  king,  and  who  in  time 
became  the  Keeper  of  the  Royal  Conscience,  and  the 
chief  lawyer  in  the  realm.  By  the  populace,  chancellors 
and  the  Keepers  of  the  Seal  were  soon  spoken  of  as 
holding  one  and  the  same  office,  and  for  many  genera- 
tions the  titles  were  deemed  to  have  one  meaning;  al- 
beit, the  offices  were  distinct,  and  occasions  frequently 
arose  when  they  were  filled  by  different  persons.  Even 
in  the  time  of  the  Confessor,  one  man  is  found  discharg- 
ing the  office  of  chancellor,  whilst  another  is  employed 
to  keep  and  use  the  seal.  The  first  Lord  Keeper  on 
record  (acting  merely  as  a  keeper)  is  Swardus,  who,  dur- 
ing the  chancellorship  of  Reimbaldus,  was  employed  to 
seal  the  royal  charters:  but  in  that  instance,  as  in  many 
subsequent  cases,  the  Keeper  of  the  Seal  was  no  more 
than  a  deputy  acting  for  the  chancellor,  and  therefore, 
by  a  well-known  maxim  of  law,  the  official  acts  of 
Swardus  may  be  regarded  as  the  acts  of  Reimbaldus. 

The  Confessor's  example  in  this  matter  was  followed 
by  his  successors,  whenever  they  found  it  coi  venient  to 
separate  the  two  offices.  While  chancellors  attended 
their  kings  on  foreign  travel,  or  were  compelled  to  leave 
England  on  missions  to  continental  states,  keepers  were 
appointed  to  use  the  seals  ;  and,  on  the  other  hand,  the 
munarch,  atteded  by  his  Keeper  bearing  the  Seals,  would 
cross  the  seas,  whilst  his  chancellor  remained  at  home 
discharging  his  ordinary  functions.  In  the  latter  case  it 
was  usual  for  the  chancellor  to  hold  a  duplicate  Great 
Seal,  so  that  the  king's  business  might  be   carried    on, 


8  PLEASANTRIES     OF    ENGLISH 

notwithstanding  the  iibsence  of  the  Keeper  and  the 
veritable  Great  Seal  from  the  country.  Thus,  Keeper  cr 
Vice  Chancellor  Malchein  attended  Richard  I.  on  the 
way  to  the  Holy  Land,  whilst  Chancellor  Longchamp 
minded  the  king's  affairs  at  home.  Hence  arose  the 
practice  of  appointing  a  Lord  Keeper  to  do  the  Chan- 
cellor's work,  not  merely  during  that  minister's  tempo- 
rary absence  from  the  land,  but  at  times  when  the  chan- 
cellor's office  was  vacant,  and  when  there  was  no  inten- 
tion in  the  king's  mind  to  fill  it  immediaiely. 

In  time,  Lord  Keepers  and  Lord  Chancellors  came  to 
hold,  for  all  practical  purposes,  one  and  the  same  office. 
The  occasions  were  rare  when  the  two  places  were  filled 
at  the  same  time  by  different  persons  ;  and  when  those 
occasions  ceased  to  occur  the  distinction  grew  to  be  a 
mere  affair  of  title — the  Lord  Chancellor  being  Lord 
Keeper  with  superior  rank,  the  Lord  Keeper  being  a 
Lord  Chancellor  with  the  less  noble  designation.  But  it 
was  not  till  the  reign  of  Elizabeth  that  an  act  of  parlia- 
ment put  the  fact  beyond  question.  When  Sir  Nicholas 
Bacon  was  made  Queen  Elizabeth's  Lord  Keeper,  an 
Act  (drawn  and  made  law  by  men  not  familiar  with  old 
usage)  was  passed  declaring  that  the  Lord  Keeper  was  a 
Lord  Chancellor  in  every  respect  save  that  of  title.  This 
enactment  took  from  the  crown  the  privilege  of  having 
a  chancellor  and  a  keeper  at  the  same  time. 


CHAPTER      III. 

N  the  first  }'ear  of  his  reign,  the  infant  king  Henry 
III.  affixed  to  letters-patent  the  seal  of  his  protec- 
tor, William,  Earl  of  Pembroke  ;  and  he  expressly  states 
that  the  Protector  a  seal  was  employed  because  he  haci 


COURTS    AND     LAWYERS.  9 

not  as  yet  a  seal  of  his  own.  It  was  not  till  the  third 
year  of  his  reign,  that  the  youthful  monarch  had  a  seal ; 
and  even  when  it  had  been  engraved  he  was  not  permit- 
ted to  use  it  until  he  had  attained  full  age,  a  special  act 
providing  that  no  "charter  or  letters-patent  of  confirma- 
tion, alienation,  sale,  or  grant  of  anything  under  perpe- 
tuity, should  be  sealed  with  the  King's  Great  Seal  until 
his  full  age  ;  and  that  if  such  were  sealed  with  that 
Seal  they  should  be  void."  This  is  a  noteworthy  instance 
of  a  king,  sound  in  mind  and  body,  permitted  to  sit  upon 
the  throne,  but  restrained  from  exercising  his  royal  rights. 
In  the  feudal  ages  any  needy  clerk  who  had  turned 
his  attention  to  caligraphy,  could  have  perpetrated  for- 
geries in  perfect  confidence  that  they  would  endure  the 
scrutiny  of  the  most  accurate  and  skillful  of  living  read- 
ers. But  the  necessity  for  sealing  placed  almost  insu- 
perable obstacles  in  the  way  of  those  who  were  best 
qualified  and  most  desirous  to  triumph  over  right  by  fic- 
titious deeds.  It  was  no  easy  matter  to  procure  seals  of 
any  kind  ;  it  was  very  difficult  to  obtain  for  dishonest 
ends  the  temporary  possession  of  well-known  seals.  Pri- 
vate persons  seldom  had  such  cunning  trinkets.  Richard 
I.  is  supposed  to  have  introduced  seals  ornamented  with 
armorial  bearings  ;  but  it  was  long  before  they  became 
general  amongst  the  nobility,  and  the  present  century 
had  begun  ere  they  were  universally. worn  by  all  persons 
laying  claim  to  gentility.  Great  barons,  ecclesiastical 
dignitaries,  secular  and  religious  corporations,  had  dis- 
tinctive seals  at  an  early  date  ;  but  they  were  confided  to 
the  care  of  trusty  keepers,  and  were  guarded  with  jeal- 
ousy. When  an  official  seal  was  used,  its  keeper  brought 
it  with  reverential  care  from  its  customary  place  of  con- 
cealment, and  it  was  not  applied  to  any  document  with- 
out satisfactory  cause  shown  why  its  sanction  was  re- 
quired. An  obscure  tamperer  with  parchments  could  not 


lo  PLEASANTRIES     OF    ENGLISH 

hope  to  lay  his  hands  on  one  of  these  important  seals. 
If  he  procured  an  impression  of  a  respected  seal,  he 
could  nut  obtain  a  fac-simile  of  the  original.  Seal-engrav- 
'wvg  was  an  art  in  which  there  were  few  adepts  ;  and  the 
artists  were  for  the  most  part  men  to  whom  no  rogue 
would  dare  propose  the  hazardous  task  of  counterfeiting 
an  official  device. 

In  estimating  the  security  given  by  seals,  the  reader 
must  bear  in  mind  that  the  forger  of  deeds  in  olden  time 
liad  not  overcome  all  difficulties,  when  he  had  surrep- 
titiously obtained  a  seal.  The  mere  act  of  sealing  was 
by  no  means  the  simple  matter  that  it  is  now-a-days. 
To  place  the  seal  on  fit  labels  rightly  placed  ;  and  in  all 
respects  to  make  the  fictitious  deed  an  accurate  imita- 
tion of  the  intended  deeds  to  which  the  particular  seal 
of  a  particular  great  man  was  applied,  were  no  trifling 
feats  of  dexterity,  ere  scriveners  had  congregated  into 
fraternities,  and  law-stationers  had  been  called  into  exis- 
tence. To  get  a  supply  of  suitable  wax  was  an  under- 
taking by  no  means  easy  in  accomplishment.  Sealing- 
wax  was  not  to  be  bought  by  the  pound  or  stick  in  every 
street  of  feudal  London.  Cire  d" Espagne — sealing-wax 
akin  to  the  bright  vermilion  compound  now  in  use — was 
not  invented  till  the  middle  of  the  sixteenth  century. 
William  Hone  assures  his  readers  that  "  the  earliest  let- 
ter known  to  have  been  sealed  with  it  was  written  from 
London,  August  3,  I554>  to  Heingrave  Philip  Francis 
von  Daun,  by  his  agent  in  England,  Gerrand  Herman," 
and  long  after  that  date  the  manufacture  of  sealing-wax 
W-is  a  secret  known  to  comparatively  few  persons.  In 
feudal  England  there  were  divers  adhesive  compounds 
used  for  sealing.  Every  keeper  of  an  official  seal  had 
his  own  recipe  for  wax.  Sometimes  the  wax  was  white  ; 
sometimes  it  was  yellow;  occasionally  it  was  tinged  with 
vegetable   dyes  ;     most   frequently  it  was  a  mess  bearing 


COURTS    AND     LAWYERS.  ii 

much  resemblance  to  the  dirt-pies  of  little  children.  But 
its  combination  was  d  mystery  to  the  vulgar;  and  no 
man  could  safely  counterfeit  a  seal-impression  who  had 
not  at  command  a  stock  of  a  particular  sealing-earth  or 
paste,  or  wax.  Eyes  powerless  to  detect  the  falsity  of  a 
forger's  hand-writing  could  see  at  a  glance  whether  his 
wax  was  of  the  right  color. 

Moreover;  the  practice  of  attesting  private  deeds  by 
pr.blic  or  well-known  seals  gave  to  transactions  a  pub- 
I'city  which  was  the  most  valuable  sort  of  attestation.  A 
simple  knight  could  not  obtain  the  impression  of  his 
feudal  chieftain's  seal  without  a  formal  request,  and  a 
full  statement  of  the  business  in  hand.  The  wealthy 
burgher,  who  obtained  permission  to  affix  a  municipal 
seal  to  a  private  parchment,  proclaimed  the  transaction 
which  occasioned  the  request.  The  thriving  freeholder 
who  was  allowed  the  use  of  his  lord's  graven  device,  had 
first  sought  for  the  privilege  openly.  "Quia  sigillum 
meum  plurimis  est  inco^nitum"  were  the  words  intro- 
duced into  the  clause  of  attestation  ;  and  the  words  show 
that  publicity  was  his  object.  And  to  attain  that  object 
the  seal  was  pressed  in  open  court,  in  the  presence  of 
many  witnesses. 

Indeed,  the  process  of  sealing  was  so  much  more  re- 
spected than  the  act  of  signing,  that  in  some  countries 
the  practice  of  sealing  was  alone  employed  ;  and  in  Eng- 
land the  seal  was  long  regarded  as  that  which  imparted 
validity  to  a  deed,  v/hilst  signature  was  held  to  be  a 
needless  ceremony.  The  Saxons,  who  seldom  used  seals, 
subscribed  their  names  to  their  deeds;  or  if  they  were 
unable  to  write  they  signed  with  the  sign  of  the  cross, 
after  the  manner  of  King  Ciisdwalla,  one  of  whose  charters 
ends  with  the  following  candid  avowal  of  his  inability  to 
sign  his  name: — "  Propria  manu  pro  ignorantia  literarum 
signum  sanctse   crucis  expressi   et   subscripsi."      In  con- 


ri  PLEASANTRIES     OF    ENGLISH 

trast  to  the  Saxon  immiijrants,  the  Normans  sealed  with- 
out signing".  Edward  the  Confessor  adopted  the  Norman 
practice,  and  attested  his  charter  to  Westminster  Abbey 
by  seal  alone.  Of  course  the  conquering  barons'did  not 
depart  in  this  matter  from  the  usage  of  their  fathers  ; 
under  their  influence  the  practice  of  sealing  became 
universal  in  England,  and  the  necessity  for  signature 
ceased  to  exist.  "  Th  s  neglect  of  signing,"  says  Black- 
stone,  "  and  resting  only  upon  the  authority  of  seals, 
remained  very  long  among  us  ;  for  it  was  held  in  all  our 
books  that  sealing  alone  was  sufficient  to  authenticate  a 
deed  ;  and  so  the  common  form  of  attesting  deeds  ''scaled 
and  delivered'  continues  to  this  day ;  notwithstandingthe 
Statute  29  Car.  IL  c.  3,  revives  the  Saxon  custom,  and 
expressly  directs  the  signing,  in  all  grants  of  lands,  and 
many  other  species  of  deeds;  in  which,  therefore,  signing 
seems  to  be  now  as  necessary  as  sealing,  though  it  has 
sometimes  been  held  that  the  one  includes  the  other. 
And  the  more  modern  opinion  perhaps  is  that  the  Stat- 
ute of  Frauds  is  applicable  only  to  mere  agreements,  and 
that  signing  is  not  essential  to  the  validity  of  a  deed." 

Notwithstanding  the  difficulties  attending  their  fabri- 
cation, spurious  seals  were  manufactured  by  the  knaves 
of  feudal  England.  The  Statute  of  Treasons,  25  Edward 
III.,  declared  it  high  treason  for  a  man  to  "  counterfeit 
the  king's  Great  or  Privy  Seal ;"  but  rogues  bent  on  gain- 
ing the  sanction  of  the  Broad  Seal  for  a  wrongful  pur- 
pose knew  how  to  achieve  their  purpose  without  subject- 
ing themselves  to  the  penalties  of  high  treason.  They 
would  carefully  remove  the  impression  of  the  king's  seal 
from  a  genuine  patent,  and  cleverly  affix  the  stamped  wax 
to  fictitious  letters.  By  this  process  a  rascally  priest  con- 
cocted a  spurious  dispensation  for  non-residence  ;  and 
he  was  held  not  to  have  counterfeited  the  Great  Seal, 
but  to  have  abused  it. 


COURTS    AND    LAWYERS.  13 

But  the  priest's  fraud  sinks  into  insignificance  when  it 
is  compared  with  the  adroit  rascality  of  a  clerk  in  Chan- 
cery who  lived  in  Sir  Edward  Coke's  time.  First,  the 
dextrous  knave  placed  two  pieces  of  parchment,  one 
above  the  other,  and  glued  them  together  with  such 
nicety  and  exactness  that  even  on  close  observation  the 
two  skins  seemed  but  one  skin.  That  done,  he  drew  out 
a  patent  on  the  upper  piece,  and  in  the  usual  manner 
procured  the  impression  of  the  Great  Seal,  the  label  of 
the  seal  passing  through  both  skins.  Having  thus 
obtained  the  seal,  he  dissolved  the  glue  which  held  the 
skins  in  union,  removed  the  parchment  on  which  the 
genuine  patent  was  written,  and  then  inscribed  upon  the 
blank  skin  a  patent  in  all  respects  accordant  with  his 
wishes.  This  trick  was  such  a  master-piece  of  fraudulent 
practice  that  its  exposure  must  be  mentioned  in  terms 
of  regret.  On  the  discovery  of  the  fraud  it  was  decided 
that  the  clerk  in  Chancery  had  not  counterfeited  the 
Great  Seal,  and  had  been  merely  guilty  of  a  great  mis- 
prision. But  though  he  had  only  committed  a  compara- 
tively slight  offense,  such  was  the  cruelty  and  such  the 
injustice  of  public  opinion  that  the  artist  was  exposed 
to  much  obloquy  and  scornful  satire  ;  and,  if  Sir  Ed- 
ward Coke's  warmth  may  be  taken  as  a  truthful  indica- 
tion of  prevailing  sentiment,  the  unfortunate  gentleman 
never  altogether  recovered  that  good  esteem  which  he 
had  forfeited  by  a  delicate  and  ingenious,  though  indis- 
creet, attempt  to  control  circumstances. 


T 


CHAPTER      IV. 

HERE  being  no  constitutional  provision  for  secur- 
ing an  unbroken  occupation  of  the  keeper's  place, 


14  PLEASANTRIES    OF    ENGLISH    ' 

similar  to  the  precautions  taken  by  the  Constitution  of 
the  United  States  of  America  against  the  chances  of 
a  vacant  Presidential  throne,  there  has  always  been  a 
greater  or  less  interval  between  the  close  of  each  lord 
keeper's  official  life  and  the  commencement  of  his  suc- 
cessor's tenure  of  place;  and  during  these  intervals  the 
seal  has  always  been  for  a  greater  or  less  length  of  time 
in  the  actual  or  nominal  possession  of  the  monarch. 
During  these  periods  of  personal  tenure  of  the  Great 
Seal,  kings  have  often  amused  themselves  with  applying 
it  to  letters  with  their  own  hands.  For  instance,  Richard 
II.  himself  sealed  the  commission  by  which  he  appointed 
certain  trusty  and  noble  servants  to  proceed  to  Germany, 
and  act  as  escort  and  convoy  to  the  Emperor's  sister, 
Lady  Ann,  about  to  become  His  Britannic  Majesty's 
queen-consort.  Henry  IV.,  on  the  dismissal  of  Thomas 
Arundel  from  the  chancellorship,  with  his  own  hand 
affixed  the  seal  to  charters,  letters-patent,  and  writs.  In 
like  manner  when  Wolsey  had  placed  the  seal  in  the 
hands  of  the  Dukes  of  Norfolk  and  Suffolk,  Henry  VIII., 
by  sealing  certain  letters-patent,  sliowed  that  if  there 
were  need  for  him  to  do  so,  he  could  act  as  his  own 
lord  keeper.  At  York,  Charles  I.  kept  the  Great  Seal 
in  his  own  hands,  entrusting  it  to  Sir  Edward  Littleton 
when  there  was  need  for  an  impression,  but  requiring  the 
lord  keeper  to  restore  it  to  him  as  soon  as  the  sealing 
was  finished.  Before  the  Restoration,  Charles  II.  acted 
for  years  as  his  own  lord  keeper.  Notwithstanding  the 
statement  inscribed  upon  his  wife's  tomb  in  Kingsthorpe, 
it  is  doubtful  if  Sir  Richard  Lane  v/as  ever  lord  keeper 
to  the  exiled  monarch  ;  but  if  Lane  held  the  office, 
Charles  unquestionably  kept  his  first  Great  Seal  for  him- 
self whilst  he  was  in  Scotland,  and  uatil  the  Battle  of 
Vv^orcester.  Again,  between  the  date  of  his  compulsory 
departure  from  Paris  and  Hyde's  installment  at  Bruges, 


COURTS    AND     LAWYERS.  15 

the  exiled  monarch  oersonally  held  the  seals.  After  the 
Restoration  he  actt^  as  his  own  lord  keeper  on  a  memo- 
rable occasion.  When  the  not  too  scrupulous  Lord 
Chancellor  Nottingham  wanted  courage  to  put  the  seal 
to  Danby's  pardon,  Charles  II.  took  the  broad  device 
from  the  timid  lawyer,  and  either  with  his  own  royal 
hand,  or  by  the  hand  of  an  obsequious  servant,  sealed 
the  pardon  which  he  forthwith  presented  to  the  Earl  of 
Danby.  This  unkingly  business  done,  Charles  returned 
the  seal  to  his  chancellor,  saying,  "  Take  it  back,  my 
lord  ;   I  know  not  where  to  bestow  it  better." 

Many  similar  cases,  where  British  monarchs  have 
themselves  used  their  own  broad  seals,  could  be  men- 
tioned, but  Nottingham's  momentary  resignation  and 
immediate  return  to  office  may  be  pointed  to  as  marking 
the  shortest  period  during  which  an  English  king  has 
been  his  own  lord  keeper. 

At  times  when  the  Great  Seal  has  not  been  in  the 
hands  of  the  crown,  it  has  often  occurred  that  the 
country  has  been  without  a  lord  keeper,  and  also  with- 
out a  lord  chancellor.  In  such  cases  the  seal  itself  has 
been  entrusted  to  a  committee  of  several  persons,  and 
the  seal  itself  has  been  said  to  be  "  in  commission."  One 
of  the  earliest  instances  of  this  arrangement  occurred  in 
the  reign  of  Edward  III.,  when  in  the  interim  between 
Robert  Parnynge's  death  and  Robert  de  Sadyngton's 
chancellorship  the  Great  Seal  was  entrusted  to  the 
Master  of  the  Rolls  and  two  other  officers.  After  an 
interval  of  a  few  years,  on  the  sudden  death  of  Chan- 
cellor John  de  Offord,  the  seal  was  again  in  commission 
— three  persons  assisting  the  Master  of  the  Rolls  to  use 
it :  and  since  that  time  the  seals  have  frequently  been 
in  commission  for  longer  or  shorter  periods.  In  the 
seventeenth  century  commissions  were  very  common. 
The  parliamentary  soldiers  or  leaders  entertained  illogi- 


r6  rLEASANTRIES     OF    EXGLISH 

cal  but  wholesome  prejudices  against  lawyers;  and  dur- 
ing the  Commonwealth  the  Great  Seal  of  Great  Britain 
was  entrusted  to  various  commissions,  of  which,  n.ore 
will  be  said  elsewhere.  Following  the  established  cus- 
tom, and  thereby  gratifying  public  opinion,  William  III. 
was  averse  to  the  thought  of  appointing  a  chancellor  ; 
and  Somers  was  not  raised  to  the  high  place  on  which 
he  shed  undying  lustre,  until  the  king  had  found  reason 
to  distrust  commissions.  William's  first  set  of  commis- 
sioners— Maynard  (aetat  87),  Keck,  and  Rawlinson — not- 
withstanding Maynard's  learning,  wit,  and  high  repute, 
caused  much  dissatisfaction  among  lav/yers  and  suitors  ; 
and  the  succeeding  three,  amongst  whom  Rawlinson 
again  had  place,  did  not  fare  better. 

Indeed.  Commissioners  of  the  Great  Seal  have  seldom 
met  with  public  approbation  in  these  latter  times  ;  and 
although  in  da}-s  when  the  rule  and  practice  of  Chancery 
were  less  definite  and  complicated  than  they  are  at 
present,  the  division  of  the  Chancellor's  honor  and 
responsibility  afforded  some  securities  for  public  welfare, 
and  was  attended  by  comparatively  few  inconveniences, 
it  may  be  confidently  asserted  that  no  prime  minister 
of  the  present  reign  will  advise  the  Queen  to  place  her 
Great  Seal  in  the  keeping  of  a  board  of  honorable 
gentlemen  for  any  long  period  of  time.  Of  all  known 
commissions  of  the  Great  Seal,  that  which  was  appointed 
after  the  tragical  death  of  Charles  Yorke  became  at  the 
same  time  the  most  unpopular  and  ridiculous.  It  con- 
sisted of  three  puisne  judges,  whose  familiarity  with  the 
Courts  of  Equity  was  not  greater  than  that  of  most 
puisne  judges.  Sir  Sidney  Stafford  Smythe,  Sir  Richard 
Aston,  and  the  Honorable  Henry  Bathurst  were  the 
lawyers  thus  raised  above  their  fellows,  and  in  men- 
tal anguish  they  paid  a  high  price  for  an  elevation 
which  lasted  for  about  twelve  months.     At  length,  the 


COURTS    AND     LAWYERS.  xj 

endurance  of  the  public  gave  way,  and  to  pacify  lawyers 
and  clients,  it  being  found  necessary  to  appoint  a  Chan- 
cery commander-in-chief,  honest  Henry  Bathurst  was 
advanced  to  the  peerage,  and  authorized  to  dispense  bad 
law  without  the  trouble  of  having  to  consult  a  pair  of 
equally  inefficient  assessors.  When  Sir  Fletcher  Norton 
heard  of  Henry  Bathurst's  advancement,  he  exclaimed  ; 
"  What  three  could  not  do  is  given  to  the  most  incom- 
petent of  the  three."  Many  are  the  good  stories  told 
of  the  blundering  Henry  Bathurst,  son  of  tliat  witty  earl 
who  was  the  friend  of  Swift,  Addison,  and  Pope  ;  that 
old  Lord  Bathurst,  who  in  his  eighty-sixth  year  said  to 
Lawrence  Sterne,  "  Come  home  and  dine  with  me." 

Since  the  commission  which  was  followed  by  Henry 
Bathurst's  installment  in  the  Marble  Chair,  there  have 
been  four  occasions  when  the  Great  Seal  has  been  held 
by  commissioners.  Between  Thurlow's  first  and  second 
chancellorships,  the  Great  Seal  was  committed  to  the 
care  of  Lord  Loughborough,  Chief  Justice  of  the  Com- 
mon Pleas  ;  Sir  William  Henry  Ashurst,  justice  of  the 
Common  Pleas;  and  Sir  Beaumont  Piotham,  baron  of 
the  Exchequer.  In  1792,  filling  a  gap  between  the 
second  chancellorship  of  Thurlow  and  the  installment  of 
Lord  Loughborough,  there  was  a  short-lived  com.mission. 
On  Lord  Lyndhurst's  resignation  in  1835  the  seals  were 
put  in  commission — Sir  Charles  Christopher  Pepys,  Vice- 
Chancellor  Shadwell,  and  Mr.  Justice  Bosanquet  being 
the  commissioners,  until  Sir  Christopher  Pepys  became 
Lord  Chancellor  with  the  title  of  Lord  Cottenham. 
Lastly,  on  Lord  Cottenham's  retirement,  a  commission 
— consisting  of  Lord  Langdale,  Vice-Chancellor  Shad- 
well,  and  Sir  Robert  Monsey  Rolfe — held  the  seals  from 
June  18,  1850,  to  July  15,  1 850,  on  which  latter  day 
Lord  Truro  became  Chancellor 
1.— 2 


1 8  PLEASANTRIES     OF    ENGLISH 


CHAPTER      V. 

ALTHOUGH  English  inonarchs  have  usually  had 
but  one  Great  Seal  at  a  time,  it  has  from  time  im- 
nicniorial  been  customary  t3  speak  of  the  Lord  Chan- 
cellor or  Lord  Keeper  as  holding  "///£♦  jt^/j-."  This  usage 
has  often  created  in  uninquiring  minds  a  misapprehen- 
sion that  the  Chancellor  is  invariably  the  keeper  of  at 
least  two  seals;  and  it  has  even  led  legal  writers  into 
mistake.  The  right  explanation  of  the  term  is  found  in 
the  formation  of  the  Great  Seal,  which  is  made  in  two 
parts,  its  obverse  and  reverse  being  in  fact  two  distinct 
and  separate  seals,  the  impressions  of  which  are  taken 
on  wax  interposed  between  them,  and  in  combination 
are  the  stamp  of  the  CI  avis  RcgJii. 

But  few  English  sovereigns  are  known  to  have  had 
two  or  more  contemporaneous  Great  Seals  ;  and  it  is 
improbable  that  the  monarchs  who  were  thus  rich  in 
seals  made  it  a  rule  to  entrust  them  both  or  all  at  the 
same  time  to  one  officer.  Kings  who  had  occasion  to 
travel  in  foreign  lands  not  unfrequently  had  two  different 
Great  Seals,  or  a  Great  Seal  and  a  fac  simile — one  for 
the  use  of  royalty  on  his  travels,  the  other  for  the  use 
of  the  Chancellor  entrusted  with  the  conduct  of  affairs 
at  home  ;  one  being  in  the  custody  of  the  keeper  in 
attendance  on  his  liege  lord,  the  other  being  left  with 
the  chief  of  the  High  Court  of  Chancery.  But  in  cases 
where  the  two  seals  had  different  designs,  common  pru- 
dence would  dictate  that  they  should  be  kept  from  the 
grasp  of  one  man  ;  and  it  cannot  be  doubted  that  in 
most  instances  prudence  controlled  the  action  of  the 
crown  with  regard  to  this  matter,  as  kings  are  continu- 
ally found  destroying  their  discarded  seals,  for  the  sake 
of  avoiding  the  confusion  and  troubles  that  mi<zht  ensue 


COURTS    AND     LAWYERS.  19 

if,  without  an  especial  reason,  they  retained  in   use,  or 
even  in  existence,  seals  of  diverse  patterns. 

Edward  III.  was  remarkable  for  the  number  and  variety 
of  the  Great  Seals  which  he  caused  to  be  made.  His 
assumption,  renunciation,  and  resumption  of  the  title  of 
King  of  France,  and  certain  exigencies  of  state  conse- 
quent on  his  frequent  departures  from  England,  brought 
about  his  frequent  changes  in  the  pattern  of  his  seal. 
In  all  he  had  no  less  than  seven  Great  Seals,  of  which 
the  first  was  destroyed  nine  months  after  his  accession 
to  the  throne,  and  before  the  second  seal  was  affixed  to 
any  document.  The  fourth  seal  (engraved  on  his  formal 
assumption  of  the  title  of  King  of  France)  was  also  de- 
stroyed on  the  day  that  the  fifth  was  brought  into  use. 
The  third  seal  was  first  used  on  July  10,  1338,  when  the 
king,  being  about  to  leave  the  country,  sent  an  impres- 
sion of  it  to  all  his  principal  servants  of  state,  intimating 
that  during  his  absence  it  would  be  the  Great  Seal  for 
domestic  use,  whilst  his  other  (No.  2)  seal  would  attend 
him  abroad.  On  the  king's  return  from  Tournay,  on 
Nov.  10,  1340,  a  sixth  seal,  made  in  foreign  parts,  was 
given  to  William  de  Kilderby,  and  an  order  was  given 
that  during  the  king's  presence  in  the  country  it  should 
be  used  in  the  place  of  the  destroyed  fourth  seal;  and 
that  the  fifth  seal  should  be  again  used  during  any  fu- 
ture absence  of  the  monarch  from  the  realm.  These  two 
last-mentioned  seals  were  employed  till  1369,  when  the 
seventh  seal,  the  handsomest  of  all  the  seven,  was  en- 
graved in  accordance  with  the  terms  of  the  peace  of 
Bretigny. 

From  remote  days  in  our  history  the  destruction  of 
discarded  Great  Seals  has  been  accomplished  with  due 
ceremony,  and  until  recent  times  with  great  complete- 
ness. It  is  matter  of  record  that  Edward  III.'s  first 
seal  v/as  broken  "  in  minutas  pecias"  on  October  5,  1327, 


CO  PLEASANTRIES    OE    ENGLISH 

and  that  the  Chancellor  gave  the  fragments  to  his  sealer. 
This  notice  is  of  interest ;  for  as  the  Chancellor  could 
not  give  away  that  which  did  not  belong  to  him,  the  gift 
makes  it  clear  that  at  that  early  date  the  pieces  of  a 
destroyed  seal  were  a  perquisite  of  the  Chancellor,  and 
his  perquisite  they  have  remained  to  this  day. 

Like  Edward  III.,  Henry  VIII.  had  occasion  to  adopt 
a  new  seal  in  consequence  of  an  alteration  in  his  royal 
style.  When  he  had  finally  broken  with  Rome,  he  deliv- 
ered into  the  hands  of  Sir  TJiomas  More's  successor  a 
new  broad  seal,  which  is  minutely  described  in  the  Close 
Roll,  the  old  Great  Seal  havingbeen  previously  destroyed. 

For  a  less  weighty  reason  James  I.  caused  his  seal  to 
be  altered.  On  July  19,  1603,  Elizabeth's  seal  was 
broken,  and  the  monarch  placed  his  own  seal  in  the 
hands  of  Egerton,  who  was  then  first  authorized  to  bear 
the  higher  title  of  Lord  Chancellor,  and  was  moreover 
raised  to  the  peerage  with  the  title  of  Baron  Ellesmere. 
Two  years  later  James  gave  a  warrant  to  the  Lord  Chan- 
cellor empowering  him  to  alter  the  seal,  "  forasmuch  as 
in  our  Great  Seal  lately  made  for  our  realm  of  England, 
the  canopy  over  the  picture  of  our  face  is  so  low  em- 
bossed that  thereby  the  same  seal  in  that  place  thereof 
doth  easily  bruise  and  take  disgrace." 

Few  Great  Seals  have  been  broken  with  greater  pomp 
and  amidst  livelier  excitement  than  the  Clavis  Regni 
which  Lord  Keeper  Littleton  followed  at  full  gallop  from 
London  to  York,  which  figured  in  the  High  Court  of 
Chancery  presided  over  by  Littleton  in  the  Philosophy 
Schools  of  Oxford,  and  which  was  left  in  Lord  Keeper 
Lane's  hands,  when  Charles  I.,  under  the  disguise  of  a 
groom,  rode  away  from  Oxford,  on  the  announcement 
that  Cromwell  and  Fairfax  were  marching  on  the  strong- 
hold of  loyalty.  In  settling  the  terms  of  honorable  ca- 
pitulation, Lane  did  his  best  to  retain  possession  of  the 


I 


COURTS    AND    LAWYERS.  21 

Broad  Seal,  but  Fairfax  insisted  that  it  should  bo  sur- 
rendered to  him.  The  point  was  yielded  by  the  niilitary 
lawyer,  who  had  no  sufficient  power  to  resist  the  parlia- 
mentary soldier.  The  king's  seal  became  the  property 
of  his  enemies,  and  as  soon  as  Parliament  received  intel- 
ligence of  their  prize,  they  made  an  order  that  their 
general  should  forward  it  to  them  from  Oxford,  and 
that  on  its  arrival  it  should  be  defaced  and  broken.  On 
August  II,  1646,  the  order  for  its  destruction  was  car- 
ried out  in  the  presence  of  a  crowd  of  animated  witnesses. 
When  Lenthal  had  produced  it  at  the  bar  of  the  House 
of  Peers,  a  stalwart  smith  made  his  appearance,  and, 
amidst  deafening  acclamations,  struck  into  fragments  the 
bauble  which  had  occasioned  the  nation  so  much  uneasi- 
ness, and  with  a  fac  simile  of  which  the  Parliament  had 
been  carrying  on,  and  still  meant  to  carry  on,  the  coun- 
try's business.  It  is  noteworthy  that  the  fragments  of 
this  seal  were  divided  between  the  Speakers  of  the  two 
Houses — not  between  the  six  Commissioners  (two  peers 
and  four  members  of  the  House  of  Commons)  who  were 
the  custodians  of  the  parliamentary  fac  simile. 

Tlie  time  was  fast  approaching  when  the  Parliament 
decided  to  set  aside  their  fac  simile  of  the  Royal  Seal,  and 
to  adopt  a  device  of  their  own.  In  the  same  month  which 
saw  Charles  I.'s  trial,  the  Parliament  resolved  to  adopt 
as  the  Clavis  Repiiblicce  a  Great  Seal,  having  on  the  one 
side  a  map  of  England,  Ireland,  Jersey,  and  Guernsey, 
the  arms  of  England  and  Ireland,  and  the  legend  "  The 
Great  Seal  of  England,  1648;"  and  bearing  on  the  other 
a  picture  of  the  House  of  Commons,  inscribed,  "  In  the 
first  year  of  freedom,  by  God's  blessing  restored,  1648." 
At  the  time  of  the  king's  execution.  Sir  Thomas  Wid- 
drington  and  Whitelock  were  the  keepers  of  the  parlia- 
mentary fic  simile  ;  and  as  soon  as  that  tragedy  had  been 
enacted,  steps  were  taken  for  substituting  the  new  seal 


7  2  PLEASANTRIES    OF    ENGLISH 

for  the  counterfeit.  It  was  ordered  "  that  Sir  Thomas 
Widdrington  and  Mr.  VVhitelocke,  the  Commissioners  of 
the  Great  Seal,  be  required  to  surrender  the  Great  Seal 
now  in  use,  bearing  the  name  and  insignia  of  the  late 
king;  and  that  an  ordinance  be  brought  in  to  authorize 
the  use  of  the  new  Great  Seal  made  by  the  order  of  the 
House,  and  to  appoint  them  the  keepers  thereof."  In 
compliance  with  this  order  the  fac  simile  was  broken  in 
the  House  of  Commons  by  a  smith,  who  did  his  work  in 
the  presence  of  the  Speaker  and  assembled  members. 
Tlic  pieces  of  the  fac  simile,  together  with  the  bag,  em- 
broidered with  the  royal  arms,  in  which  the  seal  had 
been  kept,  were  assigned  to  the  two  commissioners  as 
"  fees."  Widdrington,  however,  declining  to  act  as  a 
Commissioner  of  the  Republican  Seal,  it  was  entrusted 
to  a  new  commission  composed  of  Whitelocke,  l.isle, 
and   Keble. 

In  due  course  this  seal  came  to  the  hammer.  In 
1659  the  Rump,  on  reassembling,  resolved  "  that  a  new 
Great  Seal  be  with  all  speed  prepared  and  brought  into 
this  House,  according  to  the  form  of  the  last  Great  Seal 
made  by  authority  of  this  Parliament,  and  that  the  last 
Great  Seal  be  brought  into  this  House  to  be  broken  be- 
fore the  Parliament."  This  new  seal  was  a  reproduction 
of  the  one  ordered  by  the  Parliament  in  January,  1649, 
save  in  respect  of  the  legends,  which  were — "  The  Great 
Seal  of  England,  165 1,"  on  the  side  bearing  the  maps; 
and  "  In  the  third  year  of  freedom,  by  God's  blessing 
restored,  165 1."  Of  the  destruction  of  Cromwell's  Great 
Seal,  a  sufficiently  minute  description  is  extant.  White 
locke  having  laid  it  before  the  Rump,  a  smith  broke  it 
into  several  pieces,  which  the  ex-commissioners  divided 
as  their  "  fees." 

The  existence  of  the  seal  made  by  order  of  thr;  Rump 
did  not  last  many  days  beyond  twelve  months;  but  in 


COURTS    AND     LAWYERS.  23 

its  brief  day  it  saw  strange  scenes,  was  the  center  of 
much  warm  contention,  occasioned  an  earnest  discussion, 
tlie  memory  of  which  now-a-days  raises  a  smile,  and 
passed  into  the  hands  of  several  different  keepers.  Of 
its  strange  fortunes  notice  must  be  taken  elsewhere;  for 
the  present  it  is  enough  to  record  its  death.  In  1660, 
when  the  House  of  Stuart  had  been  restored  with  much 
noise  of  trumpets  and  an  excess  of  drunkenness,  the 
Republican  Seal  was  doomed  to  death.  It  had  been  in- 
strumental in  bringing  about  the  triumph  of  monarchical 
principles,  but,  less  fortunate  than  General  Monk,  it 
could  not  induce  the  restored  party  to  pardon  its  mis- 
deeds in  memory  of  its  more  recent-good  services.  The 
order  was  given  for  its  execution,  and  accordingly  it  was 
laid  upon  the  clerk's  table  in  the  House  of  Commons, 
and  by  a  smith's  strong  arm  broken  in  the  presence  of 
the  Speaker,  the  several  pieces  into  which  it  was  thus 
divided  being  distributed  amongst  its  ex-lord  commis- 
sioners. Forgetful  of  his  own  previous  statements,  Lord 
Campbell  remarks  on  the  destruction  of  this  seal,  "  This 
v/as  the  final  end  of  the  Great  Seal  of  the  Common- 
wealth, which  the  king  himself,  in  the  treaty  at  Newport, 
had  agreed  to  acknowledge,  and  under  which  justice  had 
been  long  administered,  commissions  had  been  granted 
to  victorious  generals  and  admirals,  and  treaties,  dictated 
by  England,  had  been  entered  into  with  the  most  power- 
ful nations  in  Europe."  When  the  noble  author  penned 
this  sentence,  he  forgot  that  the  Great  Seal  of  the 
Rump's  manufacture  replaced  the  Great  Seal  which 
Cromwell's  wise  and  energetic  policy  had  rendered  an 
object  of  respect. 

For  several  generations  the  custom  of  actually  Ijreak'- 
ing  discarded  seals  has  been  disused;  but  the  ceremony 
of  breaking — or  damasking,  as  it  is  termed — is  still  ob- 
served by  our  sovereig;  \,  who,  when  they  thus  formally 


2  4  PLEASANTRIES    OE    ENGLISH 

Fot  asitie  an  old  seal,  tap  it  gently  with  a  hamir.cr,  at  the 
same  time  ordering  their  ioyal  subjects  to  regard  it  as 
i-.mashed  and  ground  to  powder.  The  old  seal  thus  cour- 
teously knocked  on  the  head  is  still  capable  of  giving  an 
impression  ;  but  in  these  days  of  accurate  records  and 
official  vigilance  there  is  no  fear  that  any  possessor  of  a 
discarded  seal  will  peril  fame  and  estate  by  applying  it  to 
a  parchment  with  a  fraudulent  intention.  To  counterfeit 
an  old  Great  Seal  is  treason.  Even  when  Henry  VI. 
had  been  attainted  as  an  usurper,  it  was  for  manifest 
and  good  reasons  held  that  to  counterfeit  his  Great  Seal 
v/as  an  offense  against  the  king's  majesty. 

Chancellors  still  regard  disused  seals  as  their  perqui- 
sites;  and  in  modern  times  no  chancellor,  during  whose 
official  life  a  Great  Seal  has  been  damasked,  has  failed  to 
claim  it  as  his  right.  In  families  ennobled  by  the  law, 
the  damasked  seal,  held  by  an  ancestor  whilst  royal 
virtue  yet  remained  in  it,  is  treasured  amongst  sacred 
heirlooms  and  relics.  Instead  of  imitating  the  indiffer- 
ence with  which  Edward  III.'s  chancellor  gave  the 
fragments  of  a  broken  seal  to  his  sealer,  the  modern 
chancellor  seizes  a  damasked  device  with  a  triumphant 
eagerness  almost  equal  to  that  with  which  he  clutched 
the  seals  on  his  first  accession  to  office,  when  they  were 
not  empty  baubles,  but  mysterious  channels  through 
which  the  sovereign  dispensed  his  gracious  will. 

Within  the  memory  of  men  who  are  still  young,  there 
was  a  keen  contest  between  Lord  Lyndhurst  and  Lord 
Brougham  with  regard  to  their  respective  claims  to 
George  IV. 's  Great  Seal.  On  William  IV. 's  accession, 
when  an  order  in  council  was  made  for  a  new  Great  Seal, 
Lord  Lyndhurst  was  the  Chancellor ;  but  before  the  king's 
engraver  had  accomplished  the  order,  and  while  George 
IV. 's  seal  was  still  in  use,  Henry  Brougham  became  the 
keeper  of  the  king's  conscience.     When,  at  length,  the 


COURTS     AND     LAWYERS. 


25 


seal  of  the  last  reign  was  damasked,  the  question  arose 
— to  which  of  the  two  lawyers,  the  chancellor  or  the  ex- 
chancellor,  it  fell  as  a  perquisite  of  office.  Lord  Lynd- 
hurst  (who  was  unquestionably  in  the  wrong)  advanced 
his  claim  on  the  ground  that,  as  the  order  was  made 
during  his  tenure  of  office,  the  seal  was  actually  discarded 
during  his  chancellorship,  and  therefore  it  fell  to  him. 
On  the  other  hand,  Lord  Brougham  argued  that  the 
order  for  a  new  seal  was  but  a  step  prudently  taken  in 
anticipation  of  the  act  by  which  George  IV.'s  seal  was 
destroyed  ;  that,  whilst  the  order  was  being  executed  by 
the  engraver,  the  seal  of  his  late  Majesty  George  IV. 
was  in  fact  as  well  as  theory  the  seal  of  King  William 
IV. ;  that  he.  Baron  Brougham  and  Vaux,  had  held  this 
same  seal  and  done  business  with  it,  no  one  venturing  to 
hint  that  its  virtue  was  impaired  or  in  any  way  affected 
by  the  order  in  council ;  that  the  seal  was  not  destroyed 
till  William  IV.  damasked  it,  at  which  time  he,  Lord 
Brougham,  was  its  holder.  In  short,  the  chancellor  con- 
tended that  the  order  in  council  was  no  part  whatever 
of  the  act  which  destroyed  the  old  seal ;  that  it  was  but 
a  provision  against  the  time  when  the  king  should  see 
fit  to  change  his  old  seal,  bearing  his  predecessor's  image, 
for  a  new  seal  adorned  with  his  own  likeness. 

Lord  Brougham  established  his  claim  in  the  opinion 
of  lawyers,  but  Lord  Lyndhurst  would  not  recede,  and 
though  the  dispute  was  nominally  an  amicable  difference, 
it  occasioned  some  very  warm  discussion  amongst  the 
more  enthusiastic  adherents  of  the  two  great  men.  Lord 
Lyndhurst's  friends,  in  searching  for  precedents,  fell  back 
on  a  case  that  was  attended  with  awkward  reminiscences 
to  the  ardent  champions  of  monarchical  principles,  who 
thus  cited  it  in  their  behalf.  When  the  republican  seal 
was  broken  in  the  House  of  Commons  in  1660,  Hvde 
was  Lord   Chancellor,  and  yet  its  fragments  did  not  fall 


26  PLEASANTRTES     OF    ENGLISH 

to  him,  but  to  men  who  were,  for  the  sake  of  argument, 
represented  as  his  predecessors  in  office — the  ex-Lords 
Commissioners.  At  first  appearance  the  case  might  seem 
to  favor  Lord  Lyndhurst's  pretensions.  The  repubhcan 
seal  in  a  certain  sense  was  King  Charles  IL's  seal  ;  he 
had  agreed  to  acknowledge  it,  and  it  had  been  affixed  to 
writs  running  in  his  royal  name.  It  cannot  be  questioned 
that  the  seal  of  the  Rump  had  become  the  king's  seal. 
But  the  king  had  at  the  same  time  another  Great  Seal, 
bearing  his  style  and  image,  which  seal  his  Lord  Chan- 
cellor Hyde  had  kept  and  used,  both  during  the  existence 
of  the  republican  seal,  and  prior  to  its  manufacture.  lie 
was  thus,  like  Edward  III.,  an  English  king  with  two 
Great  Seals,  one  of  which  his  Lord  Chancellor  attending 
him  abroad  had  used,  and  still  retained  on  his  return 
from  foreign  parts ;  whilst  the  other  had  been  in  the 
hands  of  commissioners,  whose  official  existence  His 
Majesty  had  recognized,  and  who  had  done  the  royal 
business  during  the  king's  absence  from  the  realm.  In 
theory  and  practice  the  republican  Lords  Commissioners 
had  been  the  King's  Commissioners,  and  when,  on  his 
return  to  England,  Charles  directed  that  the  seal  for 
which  he  had  no  further  use,  should  be  destro}-ed,  its 
remains  fell  in  accordance  with  custom  to  its  last  keepers, 
wdio  were  not  Hyde's  predecessors  in  office,  but  rather 
were  Lord  Keepers,  whilst  he,  according  to  the  theory  of 
the  royalist,  was  Lord  Chancellor.  Thus  the  case  on  ex- 
amination was  found  to  have  no  special  bearing  on  the 
difficulty  under  consideration.  It  agreed  with  the  rule 
that  damasked  seals  should  fall  to  their  last  appointed 
keepcis.  But  Lord  Lyndhurst  was  not  the  last  appointed 
keeper  of  the  seal  bearing  George  IV.'s  image;  King 
William  had  actually  entrusted  it  to  Lord  Brougham. 

The    dispute   was   at    its    height,   when   Wi.liam    iV\, 
acting    as   arbitrator  with    the    consent    of    the  partie?, 


COURTS    AND     LAWYERS.  27 

terminated  the  contest  by  a  decision  which,  like  most 
decisions  arrived  at  by  arbitration,  was  directly  in  defi- 
ance of  principle,  precedent,  and  law.  To  one  lawyer 
the  reverse  of  ths  seal  was  awarded,  to  the  other  the 
obverse  ;  and  in  order  that  his  decision  might  be  accept- 
able to  both  suitors,  the  king  directed  that  each  part 
sho'ild  at  his  ^  own  royal  cost  be  set  in  a  rich  silver 
salver. 

Damasked  seals  are  usually  thus  preserved  in  settings 
of  precious  metal.  In  the  schedule  of  heirlooms,  an- 
nexed to  Lord  Eldon's  will,  mention  was  made  of  his 
salvers  containing  George  III.'s  Great  Seal. 


CHAPTER      VI. 

PRIOR  to  the  fourteenth  century  the  Great  Seal  was 
so  perpetually  on  its  travels  that  a  more  obstinate 
vagabond  could  not  have  been  found  in  the  kingdom. 
Whithersoever  the  king  went  it  did  its  best  to  dance  at- 
tendance on  the  royal  person  ;  and  in  order  that  it 
might  the  more  easily  achieve  its  courtly  purpose,  spec- 
ial arrangements  were  made  for  its  entertainment  and 
convenience. 

It  is  uncertain  at  what  exact  date  the  lawyers  f  rst 
entered  their  quarters  at  Westminster.  In  Edward  II. 's 
reign  mention  is  m.ade  of  the  hall  as  a  place  where  the 
chancellor  held  his  sittings  ;  but  as  the  record,  bearing 
date  July,  13 10,  in  which  it  occurs  contains  the  words 
'  ubi  cancellarii  Regis  sedere  consueverunt,"  the  precise 
antiquity  of  the  usage  remains  in  doubt.  A  record  of 
the  nineteenth  year  of  the  same  reign  mentions  for  the 
first  time  the  "  tabulam  marmoream,"  at  which  the  chan- 
cellor v/as   accustomed  to  sit.     Amongst  the  beneficial 


2S  PLEASANTRIES    OE    ENGLISH 

reforms  for  which  history  renders  thanks  to  Edward  III. 
was  the  arrant^cmcnt  which  fixed  the  Chancery  and 
Queen's  Bench  at  Westminster,  thereby  relieving  suitors 
in  those  courts  and  their  lawyers  from  the  disagreeable 
and  costly  necessity  of  following  the  king's  person. 

The  adventures  of  the  Great  Seal  on  its  travels  would 
of  themselves  make  an  amusing  book.  When  Richard 
I.  started  for  Palestine,  he  left  the  government  of  his 
realm  to  Chancellor  Longchamp,  and  took  with  him  the 
Great  Seal  under  the  custody  of  Vice-Chancellor  or 
Keeper  Malchien.  Proud  of  his  office,  and  obeying  the 
usage  of  the  time,  Keeper  Malchien  always  bore  the 
Great  Seal  round  his  neck,  to  the  great  admiration  of 
the  vagrant  and  chivalric  courtiers.  Off  Cyprus  the 
good  man  had  the  ill  luck  to  topple  overboard  into  the 
sea,  and  to  be  drowned,  together  with  the  bauble  under 
his  charge. 

There  exists  no  conclusive  evidence  as  to  the  end  of 
Charles  II. 's  first  Great  Seal,  which  he  caused  to  be  made 
in  Holland,  carried  to  Scotland,  and  held  in  his  posses- 
sion when  he  marched  at  the  head  of  his  Scotch  soldiers 
to  the  battle  of  Worcester.  The  belief,  however,  pre- 
vails that  it  found  a  watery  gr^ave  in  the  Severn,  having 
been  thrown  into  that  river,  so  that  it  might  not  fall 
into  the  hands  of  Cromwell's  soldiers. 

This  story  receiv.es  some  support  from  the  mode  in 
which  James  II.  endeavored  to  make  away  with  his 
Great  Seal  in  1688.  When  the  foolish,  fallen  king, 
disguised  and  full  of  fears,  stole  from  Whitehall  on  the 
night  of  December  10,  and  attended  by  Sir  Edward 
Plales,  entered  a  hackney-coach,  the  Great  Seal  was  in 
his  pocket.  Clattering  over  uneven  ways,  the  humble 
carriage  passed  through  dark  and  dangerous  streetG  to 
the  Horse  Ferry,  Westminster.  At  that  point  the  fugi- 
tives dismissed  their  driver,  and  made  the  transit  of  the 


COURTS    AND    LAWYERS.  ■x\ 

river  in  a  boat  rowed  by  a  single  sculler.  Half  the  pas- 
sage was  accomplished,  when  the  sovereign  drew  forth 
the  seal,  and  dropped  it  beiieath  the  gloomy  surface  of 
the  water.  It  may  be  that  as  the  seal  left  his  hand  he 
thought  of  his  brotlier's  act  done  after  the  defeat  of 
Worcester  ;  it  may  be  that  he  had  been  determined  to 
throw  his  seal  into  the  Thames  by  the  recollection  that 
his  brother  had  in  like  manner  enriched  the  mud  of  the 
Severn. 

But  the  grave  surrendered  its  victim.  William  of 
Orange  used  this  same  seal  in  the  first  business  of  his 
reign.  The  exact  day  of  its  recovery  is  unknown  ;  but 
a  fortunate  fisherman  caught  it  in  his  net,  and  after  his 
first  surprise  had  subsided,  bore  it  in  triumph  to  the 
Lords  of  the  Council,  who  in  due  course  placed  it  in  the 
hands  of  the  Deliverer.  When  the  gentlemen  of  the 
long  robe  hastened  to  Whitehall  with  an  address  expres- 
sive of  loyal  attachment  to  William,  Maynard's  grey 
head  and  venerable  presence  were  conspicuous  in  the  first 
rank.  The  lawyer  was  in  his  eighty-eighth  year,  and 
with  pleasant  courtesy  the  Prince  congratulated  him  on 
the  honors  of  his  green  old  age,  and  observed  that  he 
must  have  outlived  all  the  lawyers  of  his  time.  "  Sir," 
answered  the  old  sergeant,  with  ready  wit,  "  if  your  high- 
ness had  jiot  come  over  to  our  aid,  I  should  have  outlived 
the  law  itself."  On  the  4th  of  March,  Sir  John  Maynard, 
Anthony  Keck,  Esquire,  an<i  Mr.  Sergeant  Rawlinson 
were  appointed  Lords  Commissioners  of  the  Great  Seal  ; 
and  in  that  capacity  they  held  and  used  the  seal  which 
had  been  fished  out  of  the  Thames,  utnil  (in  compliance 
with  an  order  made  in  council  on  May  23,  i68g)  a  new 
Great  Seal,  adorned  with  likenesses  of  William  and  Mary, 
was  substituted  for  the  late  king's  device.  On  Mary's 
death,  William  III.  had  another  Great  Seal  engraven, 
from  which  the  consort's  ima.<7e  and  name  were  omitted. 


so  PLEASANTRIES     OF    ENGLISH 

III  the  recovery  of  James's  seal  from  the  bed  of  the 
river,  Sir  John  UahA'mpIe  s.iw  a  proof  tliat  Providenc: 
was  beiUL^naiitly  disposed  towards  the  new  dynasty. 
"  Heaven,"  he  insisted,  "  seemed  by  this  accident  to 
declare  that  the  laws,  the  constitution,  and  the  sove- 
reignty of  Great  Britain  were  not  to  depend  on  the 
fiailty  of  man. 

'  Dum  domus  /Enece  Capitoli  immobile  saxum 
Accolet,  imperiumque  pater  Romanus  habebit.'" 

Bishop  Burnet  alludes  to  the  occurrence  in  a  scarcely 
less  amusing  manner.  "A  fisherman,"  says  the  prelate, 
"  between  Lambeth  and  Vauxhall,  was  drawing  a  net 
pretty  close  to  the  channel,  and  a  great  weight,  not  with- 
out some  difficulty  drawn  to  the  shore,  which,  when 
taken  up,  was  found  to  be  the  Great  Seal  of  England." 
Whatever  difficulty  the  fisherman  may  have  experienced 
in  drawing  his  net  to  the  shore,  the  weight  of  the  seal 
cannot  have  added  much  to  it. 


CHAPTER      VII. 

ENOUGH  has  been  said  of  perils  by  water.  The 
time  has  come  for  saying  how  robbers  have  at- 
tempted, once  unsuccessfully,  and  once  with  complete 
success,  to  obtain  possession  of  the  Clavis  Regni.  During 
the  night  of  February  7,  1677,  Lord  Chancellor  Notting- 
ham's house  in  Queen  Street,  Lincoln's-inn-fields,  then 
and  long  afterwards  a  fashionable  street  for  legal  digni- 
taries, was  broken  into  by  the  famous  Thomas  Sadler, 
possibly  an  ancestor  of  another  thief  (bearing  the  same 
surname  spelt  with  the  difference  of  one  letter),  who  a 
few  years  since  met  a  tragic  and  appropriate  end  on 
Hampstead  Heath.     Mr.  Thomas  Sadler  was  in  Charles 


COURTS    AND     LAWYERS.  31 

II. 's  London  as  daring  and  renowned  a  robber  as  Mr. 
Richard  Turpin,  or  Mr.  John  Sheppard,  in  days  nearer 
our  own  time.  He  never  lacked  money,  for  when  his 
funds  were  low  he  had  but  to  walk  in  the  Mall,  or  visit 
a  theater,  or  gallop  to  Hounslow,  and  he  returned  to  h's 
modest  home  laden  with  riches.  His  good  fortune  v/as 
too  unvarying.  Puffed  up  with  success,  and  sated  v;ith 
vulgar  triumph,  he  became  fanciful  in  the  pursuit  of  his 
art,  and  yearned  for  the  attainment  of  rare  prizes — not 
on  account  of  their  value,  but  for  the  sake  of  the  renown 
which  would  follow  from  their  seizure.  Less  greedy  of 
gold  than  oi  tfclaf,  the  gallant  fellow  resolved  to  carry  off 
the  Great  Seal.  With  this  end  in  view  he  effected  an  en- 
trance into  the  Lord  Chancellor's  house  at  about  one 
hour  after  midnight ;  but  with  less  luck  than  merit  he 
was  only  able  to  bear  away  the  mace.  The  burglary  was 
committed  whilst  Heneage  Finch  was  sleeping  soundly 
in  bed,  and  the  great  seal  was  securely  hidden  under  the 
sleeper's  pillow.  A  more  laughable  instance  of  fidelity 
to  official  trust  it  would  be  difficult  to  point  to  in  the 
annals  of  the  chancellors.  Well  had  King  Charles  said, 
"  Take  it  back,  my  lord,  I  know  not  where  to  bestow  it 
better."  After  a  short  lapse  of  time,  Thomas  Sadler  was 
apprehended  and  put  upon  his  trial  for  this  humorous 
offense  against  English  law.  The  barbarous  custom  of 
the  age  forbade  him  the  protection  of  counsel,  and  twelve 
jurymen  were  induced  to  deliver  a  verdict  which  led  to 
his  death  under  painful  and  ignominious  circumstances. 
Four  accomplices  in  the  theft  were  also  convicted,  but 
Sadler  alone  was  hanged.' 

More  than  a  century  later,  Thomas  Sadler's  magnificent 

'  Vide  "  A  Perfect  Narrative  of  the  Apprehension,  Trial  and  Confession 
an  the  day  before  mentioned  of  the  five  several  persons  that  were  con- 
federates in  stealing  the  mace  a. id  the  two  privy  purses  from  the  Lord  Pligh 
Chancellor  of  Eng  and,  at  the  Sessions  held  at  the  Justice  Hall  in  the  Old 
Bailey." 


32  PLEASAN  TRIES     OF    ENGLISH 

fiiilure  inspired  a  housebreaker  with  an  ambition  to  accom- 
plish tlie  feat  which  his  forerunner  had  ahriost  achieved. 
The  attempt  was  made  in  the  early  morning  of  March 
24,  1784,  when  Lord  Tluulow  was  the  Keeper  of  the 
Kiiig's  Conscience,  and  resided  in  Great  Ormond  Street. 
At  the  present  day  this  street  is  seldom  visited  by  people 
of  the  high  world,  and  when  a  great  lady  orders  her 
coachman  to  drive  to  one  of  its  houses,  she  is  bound  on 
an  errand  of  Christian  charity  to  the  Hospital  for  Sick 
Children,  or  some  other  of  the  charitable  institutions 
into  which  the  decayed  mansions  ot  that  dingy,  pictu- 
resque, and  very  dilapidated  thoroughfare  have  been 
converted.  But  in  times  gone  by  few  streets  were  more 
familiar  to  people  of  fashion.  In  its  palmiest  days  it 
was  part  of  the  northern  boundary  of  the  metropolis. 
The  spacious  gardens  flanking  the  houses  on  the  northern 
side  ran  back  into  the  fields,  and  ladies  could  sip  their 
morning  chocolate  at  open  windows  through  which  pure 
country  breezes  came  fresh  and  musical.  At  night  the 
street  was  a  scene  of  noisy  and  picturesque  commotion, 
— Vv'ith  windows  brilliantly  illuminated,  and  carriages 
drawn  by  four  or  even  six  horses;  with  beautiful  women, 
rich  in  brilliant  'jewels  and  superb  in  attire,  visible 
throufjh  the  trlasses  of  coaches  and  sedans;  with  linkmen 
brandishing  torches,  men  of  fashion  wearing  dainty  full- 
dress  swords,  and  notable  for  delicate  lace,  and  a  surging 
mob  of  beggars  and  pickpockets  bent  on  cheering  the 
great  folk,  enjoying  the  sight,  and  advancing  their  own 
pecuniary  interests.  After  dark  in  that  roistering,  rollick- 
ing time,  every  house  was  given  up  to  music,  cards,  and 
dancing;  but  at  noon  on  sunny  days,  when  the  street 
was  tranc|uil,  the  residents  of  the  northern  side  might  be 
seen  walking  in  their  pleasant  gardens,  or  looking  from 
their  postern  windows  towards  Hampstead,  Highgate, 
and  Islington,  over  the  green  sweep  whicii  in  those  days 


COURTS    AND     LAWYERS. 


IZ 


often  heard  the  cry  of  wildfowl,  but  was  soon  to  be 
covered  with  the  dwellings  of  Guildford  Street  and 
Brunswick  Square,  and  the  dismal  and  seldom  traversed 
regions  of  Mesopotamia,  that  lie  beyond  Mecklenburgh 
Square  and  worthy  Captain  Coram's  Home  for  Found- 
lings. Long  after  Great  Ormand  Street  had  ceased  to 
be  a  quarter  of  highest  fashion,  it  was  well  esteemed  as 
a  thoroughfare  in  which  great  noblemen  were  still  to  be 
found,  and  as  the  center  of  that  law  quarter — now-a-days 
called  the  "  old  law  quarter  " — from  which  Chief  Baron 
Pollock  retired  but  a  few  years  since,  and  in  which  a  few 
members  of  the  bar  still  reside  for  the  sake  of  old  associ- 
ations and  low  rents. 

Lord  Thurlovv  lived  in  Great  Ormond  Street  at  a  time 
when  judges  and  sergeants,  king's  counsel  (a  "select  few" 
in  the  last  century),  and  wearers  of  stuff,  constituted  the 
majority  of  his  neighbors  in  Bedford  Row  and  Queen 
Square,  and  the  residential  streets  lying  between  those 
points. 

Whilst  ''The  Great  Bear"  of  the  lawyers  replenished 
his  cellar  and  entertained  his  friends  with  good  port  in 
Great  Ormond  Street,  at  the  date  already  mentioned,  a 
thief  leaped  over  the  garden  wall,  forced  two  bars  from 
the  frame  of  the  kitchen  window  and  crept  upstairs  to 
the  room  in  which  the  Chancellor  was  wont  to  keep  the 
Seal.  The  Clavis  Rcgni  was  found  in  its  accustomed 
place,  and  the  thief  carried  it  off,  snugly  enveloped  as  it 
was  in  two  bags,  and  also  laid  hands  upon  two  silvei- 
hilted  swords,  and  a  trifling  sum  of  money.  The  robber 
effected  his  escape  without  arousing"  the  Chancellor  or 
any  member  of  the  family.  Lord  Campbell,  it  should 
be  observed,  and  the  writers  from  whom  he  has  taken 
this  story,  concur  in  representing  the  tlK.Tt  as  the  act  of 
more  than  one  thief,  but  as  all  attempts  to  discover  the 
offender  or  otTenders  were  in  vain,  it  is  unknown  whether 
I.— 3 


34  PLEASANTRIES    OF    ENGLrSH 

but  one  or  more  than  one  burglar  entered  the  hou?f. 
The  footprints  in  the  garden  seemed  to  indicate  that  at 
least  two  persons  had  been  concerned  in  forcing  the  bars 
of  the  window  ;  but  it  is  most  probable  that  only  one 
man  entered  the  dwelling. 

As  soon  as  the  sun  had  risen  the  theft  was  discovered, 
and  before  the  "law  quarter"  had  breakfasted  it  was 
known  to  every  member  of  the  legal  profession  resident 
in  London  that  the  Great  Seal  was  no  longer  in  Lord 
Thurlow's  hands.  The  news  ran  like  wildfire,  and  by 
midday  the  tatlers  of  the  Temple  and  the  quidnuncs  of 
the  coffee-houses  were  repeating  a  hundred  different  ver- 
sions of  the  story.  By  some  it  was  gravely  asserted  that 
the  theft  was  achieved  by  the  Whigs  under  the  impres- 
sion that  the  sudden  withdrawal  of  the  seal  would  so 
embarrass  the  ministry  that  they  would  be  compelled 
to  resign.  That  this  eminently  ridiculous  suspicion  was 
entertained  by  political  partisans  is  proved  by  one  of  the 
contributors  of  the  "  Rolliad,"  who  writes  : — 

"The  rugged  Thurlovv,  who,  with  sullen  scowl, 
In  surly  mood,  at  friend  and  foe  will  growl, 
Of  proud  prerogative  the  stern  support, 
Defends  the  entrance  of  great  George's  court 
'Gainst  factious  Whigs,  lesl  Ihcy  'i'ho  slok  ihe  seal 
The  sacred  diadem  itself  should  steal  : 
So  have  I  seen  near  village  butcher's  stall 
(If  things  so  great  may  be  compared  with  small), 
A  mastiff  guarding  on  a  market-day 
With  snarling  vigilance  his  master's  tray." 

By  others  it  was  affirmed  that  the  seal  was  required  for 
the  fabrication  of  a  spurious  charter  or  patent,  the  con- 
sequences of  which  might  not  transpire  beneath  the 
observation  of  the  present  generation.  The  more  pro- 
bable explanation  of  the  bold  felony  is  that  the  burglar 
perpetrated  his  crime  under  the  erroneous  but  not  un- 
natural impression  that  the  possession  of  that  particular 
seal  was  a  matter  of  the  highest  importance  to  the  Chan- 
cellor and  all  persons  concerned  in  the  government  ol 


COURTS    AND     LAWYERS.  35 

the  country,  and  that  the  mniistry  would  consent  to  pay 
u  vast  sum  of  money,  and  guarantee  impunity  to  the 
tliicf  who  should  restore  the  bauble. 

If  this  was  the  thief's  expectation  he  was  greatly  dis- 
appointed. As  soon  as  the  Chancellor  arose,  he  called 
c\^  Mr.  Pitt  in  Downing  Street,  and  the  two  statesmen 
forthwith  hastened  to  Buckingham  House,  where  they 
informed  the  king  that  a  burglar  had  made  off  with  his 
Great  Seal,  but  fortunately  had  not  taken  the  Royal 
Conscience  with  it.  A  Council  was  forthwith  called, 
and  on  that  same  day — March  24,  1784 — an  order  was 
given  for  the  immediate  manufacture  of  another  seal  for 
the  Chancellor's  use. 

By  noon  of  the  following  day  the  chief  engraver  laid 
before  the  Council  a  seal,  hastily  designed  and  imper- 
fectly finished,  which  was  forthwith  put  in  use,  and 
remained  the  Clavis  Rcgni  until  April  15,  1785,  when  it 
gave  place  to  a  nev/  seal  of  proper  excellence  and  work- 
manship. 

The  history  of  this  third  Great  Seal  was  remarkable 
beyond  the  annals  of  all  other  Great  Seals,  both  in 
respect  of  the  men  who  held  it,  and  the  purposes  to 
which  it  was  applied.  It  was  the  seal  which  Wedder- 
burn,  the  useful  defender  of  Samuel  Johnson  and  the 
hired  calumniator  of  Benjamin  Franklin,  seized  as  the 
reward  of  unscrupulous  services  and  as  compensation  in 
full  for  the  loss  of  every  honest  man's  respect. 

It  was  the  same  Great  Seal  which  had  been  felicitously 
called  Erkine's  Extinguisher.  For  less  than  fourteen 
months  Thomas  Erskine  held  it  ;  and  for  that  brief 
period  of  official  triumph,  the  eloquent  advocate  and 
sincere  champion  of  popular  interest  sacrificed  wealth, 
position,  applause,  —  everything  but  personal  honor. 
Kjw  losing  office  he  was  a  peer,  a  wit,  a  man  of  tashion  ; 
but  he  had  lost  the  princely  income  which  he  had  for 


36  PLEASANTRIES    OF    ENGLISH 

years  wen  in  the  exercise  of  his  profession,  and  Jie  could 
never  again  hope  to  be  the  idol  of  the  populace,  and  tl\o 
public  actor  to  whom  the  educated  leaders,  not  less  than 
the  rabble  of  his  party,  looked  for  protection  and  ren- 
dered enthusiastic  homage.  When  imprudent  specula- 
tions and  foolish  extravagance  haa  driven  him  to  pawn 
his  modest  pension,  and  caused  him  to  anticipate  the 
chill  penury  of  his  closing  years,  he  remembered  with 
regret  the  sacrifice  he  had  made  to  ambition,  and  re- 
flected feelingly  on  the  cruel  fortune  which  deprived  him 
of  office  before  he  could  provide  for  the  future.  In  men 
of  less  fine  nature  such  reminiscences  occasion  splenetic 
outbursts  and  sarcastic  ill-humor  ;  but  Erskine  smiled 
at  his  own  disaster,  and  enjoyed  tlie  better  luck  of  less 
deserving  competitors.  At  a  dinner-party  Captain  Parry 
was  asked  what  was  the  principal  food  of  himself  and 
his  crew  when  they  were  frozen  up  in  the  Polar  seas. 
"  We  lived  chiefly  upon  seals,"  was  the  captain's  answer. 
"  And  very  good  living,  too,"  interposed  Erskine,  "  if 
you  keep  them  long  enough." 

One  of  the  strangest  accidents  that  befell  George  III.'s 
third  Great  Seal  occurred  at  Encombe,  in  the  autumn  of 
1812.  Eldon  was  then  Lord  Chancellor,  and  was  resid- 
ing at  his  country  seat,  when  part  of  the  house  was 
destroyed  by  a  fire  that  broke  out  at  night.  With  ad- 
mirable expedition  the  fire-engine  was  at  work,  and  Lady 
Eldon's  maid-servants  were  helping  to  supply  it  with 
water.  "  It  was,"  wrote  Lord  Eldon,  "  really  a  very 
pretty  sight  ;  for  all  the  m.aids  turned  out  of  their  beds, 
and  they  formed  a  line  from  the  water  to  the  fire-engine, 
handing  the  buckets;  they  looked  very  pretty,  all  in 
their  shifts."  But  ere  the  Chancellor  found  time  to 
survey  the  maid-servants  with  approval,  he  had  provided 
for  the  safety  of  the  Great  Seal,  which  he  was  accus- 
tomed to  keep   in   his  bedchamber.     The  mishap  of  his 


COURTS    AND     LAWYERS.  37 

old  friend  Thurlow  had  been  a  lesson  to  the  cautious 
Eldon  ;  and  rather  than  liav^e  run  any  risk  of  losing  the 
Great  Seal  by  robbery  he  would  have  imitated  Heneage 
Finch,  and  slept  with  it  under  his  pillow.  At  the  first 
alarm  of  fire  the  Chancellor  hastened  out  of  doors  with 
the  Great  Seal,  and  burying  it  in  a  tlower-bed  confided 
it  to  the  care  of  mother  earth.  That  prudent  act  ac- 
complished, he  ran  to  the  aid  of  his  maid-servants. 

But  when  morning  came,  and  the  sun  looked  down  on 
a  mansion  damaged,  not  destroyed,  by  fire,  it  occurred 
to  Eldon  that  it  was  time  for  him  to  recover  the  seal 
from  its  undignified  concealment.  With  that  intention, 
he  bustled  off  to  the  long  terrace  where  he  had  buried 
his  treasure  ;  but  on  arriving  there,  to  his  tively  chagrin 
and  alarm,  he  found  that  he  had  omitted  to  mark  the 
exact  spot  of  its  interment.  Whether  the  grave  had 
been  dug  in  this  bed  or  in  that — whether  on  the  right  or 
the  left  of  the  gravel  walk — whether  above  or  below 
the  fish-tank — he  could  not  say.  In  his  perplexity  he 
sought  counsel  of  Lady  Eldon,  and  b}^  her  advice  the 
same  maid-servants  who  had  figured  so  picturesquely  by 
firelight,  together  with  the  entire  staff  of  gardeners,  were 
provided  with  spades,  shovels,  trowels,  pokers,  tongs, 
curling-irons,  old  umbrellas,  and  other  suitable  imple- 
ments, and  were  ordered  to  probe  old  mother  earth  in 
the  region  of  the  long  terrace,  until  she  delivered  up  the 
"pestiferous  metal"  which  had  been  committed  to  her 
in  trust.  "  You  never  saw  anything  so  ridiculous,"  ob- 
served his  lordship,  "as  seeing  the  whole  family  down 
that  walk  probing  and  digging  till  we  found  it."  A 
burden  of  anxious  care  must  have  fallen  from  the  Chan- 
cellor's mind  when  the  cry  of  "Found,  my  loid!" 
reached  Ids  ears. 

It  was  the  fortune  of  this  Great  Seal,  on  two  separate 
occasions,  to  be  abused  by  the  Chancellor  holding  it  in 


38  PLEASANTRIES    OF    ENGLISH 

trust ;  and,  strange  to  say,  in  each  case  the  abuse  was 
cordially  approved  by  the  majority  of  thoughtful  English- 
men. No  Chancellor  may  apply  the  Great  Seal  to  any 
instrument  until  he  has  received  the  king's  orders  to  do 
so;  and  yet  twice  during  the  life  of  George  III.,  and  for 
the  furtherance  of  arrangements  in  which  the  monarch 
was  concerned  beyond  all  other  men,  the  seal  was  used 
without  his  permission,  and  with  a  false  pretense  that 
his  sanction  for  its  employment  had  been  obtained.  In 
1789,  while  George  III.  was  a  maniac,  in  the  hands  of  a 
mad  doctor,  who  placed  his  royal  patient  in  a  strait- 
waistcoat,  and  subjected  him  to  a  rigorous  discipline, 
IvOrd  Thurlow  put  the  Great  Seal  to  a  commission 
authorizing  certain  spiritual  and  temporal  lords  to  open 
Parliament  with  all  due  formality.  And  the  two  Houses 
resolved  to  assume  that  this  commission,  of  which  the 
king  knew  nothing  whatever,  was  authorized  "  by  the 
king  himself,  with  the  advice  of  the  lords  spiritual  and 
temporal  and  commons  assembled,  according  to  the  pro- 
rogation aforesaid."  Again,  in  181 1,  Lord  Eldon  (who 
at  two  critical  periods  had  repeatedly  assumed  the  king's 
capability  to  govern,  when  he  was  in  a  state  of  mind  that 
would  be  more  than  sufficient  ground  for  depriving  a 
tradesman  of  the  right  to  manage  his  own  shop)  put  the 
seal  under  similar  circumstances  to  the  mock  commission, 
the  commissioners  named  in  which  went  through  the 
form  of  declaring  the  royal  assent  to  the  Regency  Bill. 
The  commons  having  appeared  at  the  bar  of  the  Upper 
House,  Lord  Eldon  said  :  **  My  lords  and  gentlemen,  by 
the  commands  and  by  virtue  of  the  powers  and  au- 
thority to  us  given  by  the  said  commission,  we  do  de- 
clare and  notify  His  Majesty's  royal  assent  to  the  Act  in 
the  said  commission  mentioned,  and  the  clerks  are  re- 
quired to  pass  the  same  ia  the  usual  form  and  words." 
Thus  the  royal  assent  was  accorded  to  the  Regency  Bill, 


COURTS    AND    LAWYERS.  39 

an  act  of  which  the  king  knew  no  more  than  the  babe 
unborn — an  act  which  transferred  the  regal  powers  to 
the  monarch's  eldest  son,  leaving  the  empty  title  of 
king  to  the  forlorn  old  man,  who  throughout  the  re- 
maining years  of  his  life  was  under  restraint. 

Of  good  legal  ana  connected  with  parliamentary  dis- 
cussions, relative  to  George  III.'s  attacks  of  madness, 
perhaps  the  best  is  that  which  preserves  the  pithy  criti- 
cism on  Lord  Thurlow  uttered  by  Wilkes.  Like  his 
friend  John  Scott,  Thurlow  could  shed  tears  and  be  won- 
drous pathetic  whenever  tears  could  aid  his  eloquence. 
^Aftcr  dexterously  coquetting  between  the  queen's  and 
the  prince's  parties  in  1788,  he  delivered  in  the  House 
of  Lords  his  memorable  declaration  of  gratitude  to,  and 
affection  for,  the  afflicted  king.  Having  broken  this 
harangue  with  several  distinct  fits  of  nervous  agitation, 
and  at  one  point  having  wept  copiously,  he  resumed  the 
clearest  melody  of  his  sonorous  voice,  and  CDncluded  with 
these  words  . — "  A  noble  viscount  has,  in  an  eloquent 
and  energetic  manner,  expressed  his  feelings  on  the 
present  melancholy  situation  of  His  Majesty — feelings 
rendered  more  poignant  from  the  noble  viscount's  having 
been  in  the  habit  of  personally  receiving  marks  of  in- 
dulgence and  kindness  from  his  suffering  sovereign.  My 
own  sorrow,  my  lords,  is  aggravated  by  the  same  cause. 
My  debt  of  gratitude  is  indeed  ample  for  the  many 
favors  which  have  been  graciously  conferred  upon  me  by 
His  ALajesty  ;  and  wlten  I  forget  my  sovereign,  may  my 
(iod forget  me!''  As  Thurlow  sat  down  the  sensation 
amongst  his  brother  peers  was  profound  ;  but  Liberty 
Wilkes,  who  had  been  an  auditor  of  the  speech,  was  less 
deeply  affected.  A  vicious  light  burnt  brightly  in  \\'.z 
squinting  eyes,  and,  as  a  more  than  usually  diabolical 
sneer  played  upon  his  hideous  face,  the  people's  friend 
iiissed  out — ■"  God  forget  you  !   He'll  see  you first  '* 


40  PLEASANTRIES     OF    ENGLISH 

George  III.'s  third  and  last  Great  Seal — which,  to  say 
nothing  of  commissioners,  had  been  held  by  Thurlow, 
Loughborough,  Erskine,  and  Eldon — after  the  king'e 
death  fell  to  the  last-mentioned  peer,  by  whose  descend- 
ants it  is  regarded  with  reasonable  pride. 


CHAPTER     VIII. 

IN  these  pages  allusion  has  more  than  once  been 
made  to  the  rival  Great  Seals,  of  which  this  chapter 
•-..  ill  take  especial  notice. 

On  Saturday,  May  21, 1642,  Lord  Keeper  Littleton  was 
si'.ting  in  his  house  in  the  Strand,  musing  over  the  troubles 
of  the  time,  and  facing  the  many  difficulties  and  dangers 
of  his  political  position.  The  crisis  had  arrived  when  the 
timid  man  might  no  longer  vacillate  betv/een  two  con- 
flicting interests.  Either  he  must  accept  the  chances  of 
service  under  the  Parliament,  or  he  must  lose  no  time  in 
hastening  to  York  and  regaining  the  favor  of  Charles, 
who  had  been  incensed  by  the  lawyer's  votes  on  the  Militia 
Bill,  and  \\\<\  conceived  thorough  distrust  of  him. 

Edward  Littleton,  Lord  Keeper  of  the  Great  Seal,  had 
already  resolved  to  take  the  latter  course.  Though 
anxious  to  be  in  any  case  on  the  winning  side  at  the  end 
of  the  struggle,  he  had  always  in  his  heart  wished  well 
for  the  royal  party.  He  had  temporized,  had  played  a 
cautious  but  scarcely  subtle  game,  had  satisfied  Edward 
Hyde  ^.Ts  to  the  soundness  of  his  loyalty,  and  at  the  same 
time  h'cxd  contrived  to  make  the  popular  leaders  think 
him  a  pV\:Iosophical  republican.  There  is  no  sufficient 
ground  for  ch. urging  him  with  systematic  falsehood  to 
either  par^y.  '.r'liat  he  could  tell  a  lie  to  serve  an  import- 
ant end  no  iw.  l  _>  ian  will  venture  to  question  ;  but  he  was 


COURTS    AND     LAWYERS.  41 

not  habitually  untruthful.  To  the  king's  friends,  who  had 
always  enjoyed  his  affectionate  confidence,  it  was  his 
custom  to  speak  the  truth  ;  to  the  parliainentarj^  chiefs 
he  adopted  a  policy  of  reticence,  enlivened  by  wary  in- 
timations of  what  he  might  do  under  circumstances 
which  he  secretly  thought  would  never  happen. 

But  whilst  the  Lord  Keeper  was  biding  his  time  in 
London,  Charles  L,  at  the  head  of  his  forces  at  York, 
had  become  uneasy  for  the  fate  of  the  Great  Seal,  and 
on  hearing  of  Littleton's  vote  upon  the -Militia  Bill,  'nad 
learned  to  think  his  most  exalted  lawyer  no  better  than 
an  arrant  knave.  Explanations  in  some  degree  appeased 
the  king  ;  but  he  had  resolved  to  keep  his  own  seal  and 
also  its  keeper  within  the  reach  of  his  royal  arm,  and  with 
every  appearance  of  satisfaction  Littleton  had  responded 
to  an  intimation  that  in  a  few  hours  he  would  receive  a 
formal  summons  to  convey  the  Great  Seal  to  York.  As 
he  sat  in  Exeter  House,  Strand,  he  was  awaiting  the 
arrival  of  the  king's  messenger. 

Ere  long  Mr.  Elliot,  a  courtier  who  on  that  occasion 
acted  the  part  of  a  special  messenger  from  the  crown, 
approached  the  Lord  Keeper,  and  put  in  his  hands  a  let- 
ter written  by  the  king  himself.  The  note  required  the 
Lord  Keeper  to  travel  with  all  convenient  expedition  to 
York  ;  it  also  directed  him  to  give  the  Great  Seal  into  the 
hands  of  the  gentleman  who  should  show  him  the  letter. 
So  great  was  his  distrust  of  lawyers,  Charles  wished  the 
seal  to  be  forthwith  confided  to  a  man  in  whom  he  had  con- 
fidence. The  courteous  words  of  the  royal  letter  could  not 
conceal  the  insult ;  and  though  Littleton  surrendered  the 
seal,  as  a  loyal  subject  was  bound  to  do,  he  did  not  hide 
his  sense  of  the  indignity  put  upon  him,  A  smart  alterca- 
tion took  place  between  him  and  Mr.  Elliot ;  and  when 
the  swaggering  cavalier  quitted  the  deposed  Lord  Keeper, 
he  cursed  him  for  being  a  rogue — like  all  lawyers. 


42  PLEASANTRIES     OF    ENGLISH 

Mountinij  horse,  Elliot  malvc  the  journey  to  York  with 
admirable  speed.  The  stories  of  the  expedition  with 
which  letters  were  carried  between  Charles  at  York  and 
Hyde  in  London  are  almost  beyond  belief.  For  this 
postal  service,  loyal  country  gentlemen  on  the  road  be- 
tween the  two  cities  used  to  keep  swift  horses  at  the  dis- 
posal of  royal  messengers.  Aided  by  these  relays,  letter- 
bearers  have  been  known  to  gallop  from  London  to  York 
and  back  again  in  thirty-four  hours.  That  racing-horses 
could  thus  cover  the  ground  traversed  by  Turpin's"  Black 
Bess"  is  no  matter  for  surprise;  but  cold  calculation  is 
set  at  defiance  b}'  the  pluck  and  endurance  of  the  gentle- 
men-couriers who  kept  in  their  saddles  from  sunrise  till 
the  evening  of  the  next  day,  galloping  over  wold  and 
moor  and  broken  ground.  Of  course  Elliot  had  a  fresh 
horse  waiting  for  him  at  the  close  of  every  twenty  miles; 
but  praise  is  his  due  for  making  the  most  of  favorable 
circumstances.  Charles  was  delighted  at  his  sudden  re- 
appearance, and  listened  in  gleeful  humor  to  the  boast- 
ful fabrications  with  which  he  adorned  the  narrative  of 
his  journey.  Not  content  with  ridiculing  the  fallen 
Lord  Keeper,  the  messenger  maintained  that  Littleton 
"  had  refused  to  deliver  the  seal,"  and  that  eventually 
"he  got  it  by  force  by  having  locked  the  door  upon  him, 
and  threatened  to  kill  him  if  he  would  not  give  it  to 
him,  which,  upon  such  his  manhood,  he  did  for  pure  fear 
consent  unto."  Doubtless  the  courier  on  his  way  from 
London  had  drained  many  a  foaming  tankard  of  ale,  and 
many  a  cup  of  canary.  Excitement  caused  by  drink,  and 
by  nervous  agitation  consequent  on  fierce  and  prolonged 
exertion,  had  crazed  the  man  ;  and  under  the  influence 
of  liquor  and  vain  arrogance,  he  uttered  statements 
which  no  one  save  Charles  believed,  though  it  was  im- 
possible to  di.-prove  thjm. 

Since  the  Eail  of  Arundel  and  Lord  Paget  mounted 


COURTS    AND     LAWYERS.  43 

horse  and  bore  the  Great  Seal  to  Queen  Mary  at  Frani- 
lini;ham  Castle,  the  Clavis  Regni  had  not  taken  such  a 
rapid  ride.  But  notwithstanding  Elliot's  expedition, 
Littleton  soon  appeared  at  York  to  give  the  lie  to  his 
assertions.  More  than  fifty  years  of  age,  and  suffering- 
from  a  malady  that  rendered  horse-exercise  alike  painful 
and  dangerous,  Littleton  threw  himself  fnto  the  saddle, 
and  attended  by  his  faithful  purse-bearer,  Lee,  followed 
the  Great  Seal  to  York,  where  he  arrived  at  the  end  of 
the  third  day  after  his  departure  from  London.  Charles 
received  him  coldly;  but  eventually,  throt^gh  Hyde's 
good  offices,  Littleton  was  received  into  favor,  and  after 
a  period  of  probationary  service  (during  which  he  was 
only  permitted  to  use  the  seal  under  strict  surveillance, 
and  the  king  was  in  reality  his  own  Lord  Keeper),  he  was 
fully  reinstated  in  off.ce.  As  Lord  Keeper  of  the  Great 
Seal,  he  presided  over  the  mock  High  Court  of  Chancery, 
established  by  Charles  in  the  Philosophy  Schools  at  Ox- 
ford, and  on  his  death  the  seal  passed  into  the  hands  of 
Lord  Keeper  Lane,  who  surrendered  it  to  Fairfax  in  the 
summer  of  1646. 

Thus  between  May,  1642,  and  the  Oxford  capitulation 
in  1646,  the  original  and  true  Great  Seal  of  Charles  L 
kvas  not  in  the  hands  of  the  actual  rulers  of  the  countr)^. 

As  soon  as  the  parliamentary  chiefs  ascertained  the 
flight  of  Littleton  to  York,  they  issued  a  warrant  for  his 
apprehension,  and  raised  the  hue-and-cry.  Unable  to 
recover  the  fugitive  keeper  and  the  King's  seal,  they  re- 
solved, after  much  debate  and  many  conferences  of  the 
two  Houses,  to  make  a  fac  simile  of  the  royal  device. 
Before  coming  to  this  resolution,  they  had  by  a  solemn 
decree  deprived  of  all  virtue  the  seal  which  foun'"'  its 
way  back  to  Charles.  At  first  r  .  engraver  appeared 
willing  to  counterfeit  the  Great  Seal ;  'out  Marten,  the 
regicide,  persuaded  Simonds,  the  medallist,  to  undertalie 


44  rLEASANTRIES    OF    ENGLISH 

the  perilous  task  on  the  direct  order  of  the  House,  con- 
veyed to  him  personally.  Simonds  was  therefore  intro- 
duced by  Mr.  Marten,  and  received  a  warrant  bearinj^ 
the  Speaker's  signature,  and  running  thus: — "Ordered 
that  Mr.  Simonds  be  required  and  enjoined  forthwith  to 
make  a  new  Greal  Seal  of  England,  and  that  he  shall 
have  iJ^iOO  for  his  pains,  £a.o  in  hand,  and  three-score 
pounds  as  soon  as  he  shall  have  finished  the  work."  En- 
graved on  silver,  and  in  all  respects  resembling  the 
King's  Great  Seal,  the  new  Clavis  Rcgni  was  completed 
and  brought  to  the  House  on  September  28,  1643. 

On  August  II,  1646,  as  the  reader  has  already  seen, 
the  original  seal  was  destroyed  at  the  bar  of  the  House 
of  Lords. 

Thus  for  a  period  slightly  less  than  three  years  there 
were  two  rival  Great  Seals. 

This  state  of  things  was  repeated  when  Charles  H.,  an 
exile  in  Holland,  provided  himself  with  a  Great  Seal, 
which  he  kept  in  his  own  hands,  until  the  battle  of  Wor- 
cester caused  him  to  fly  once  more  to  the  Continent. 
This  seal,  the  rival  of  the  Republican  Great  Seal,  was 
the  device  which  the  second  Charles  is  believed  to  have 
buried  in  the  river  Severn. 

In  the  year  1652  Charles  had  a  new  Great  Seal  en- 
graven in  Paris,  and  entrusted  it  to  Lord  Keeper  Her- 
bert, the  ill-starred  gentleman  whose  devotion  to  the 
Stuarts  was  only  equaled  b\'  the  ingratitude  of  the 
titular  monarch,  in  whose  service  he  utterly  ruined  him- 
self. When  Charles  quitted  Paris  in  June,  1654,  leaving 
Herbert  to  die  of  a  broken  heart,  or  of  poverty,  he  took 
the  Great  Seal  with  him  ;  but  having  no  use  for  it,  he 
did  net  entrust  it  to  an  official  keeper,  until  he  made  Ed- 
wara  Hyde  his  Lord  Chanceller,  on  January  13,  1658, 
whilst  he  and  his  little  band  of  penniless  adherents  were 
quarreling  amongst  themselves  at  Bruges. 


COURTS    AND     LAWYERS.  45 

A  volume  of  romance  might  be  written  about  the  ad- 
ventures of  this  seal.  The  rival  of  both  the  republican 
seals,  it  was  Charles's  brightest  as  well  as  his  darkest 
fortunes.  It  was  amongst  his  possessions  at  times  when 
he  literally  could  not  have  paid  for  the  wax  requisite  for 
a  single  sealing  ;  it  was  borne  into  the  House  of  Lords 
and  the  Court  of  Chancery  by  Edward  Hyde,  when  tlie 
king  came  to  his  own  again  ;  ar.d  besides  witnessing 
Hyde's  downfall  and  flight,  it  played  an  important  part 
in  some  of  the  most  iniquitous  transactions  of  English 
history. 

Very  humorous  was  the  perplexity  of  the  royalists  with 
regard  to  this  seal's  second  rival,  when  friendly  relations 
had  been  brought  about  between  the  king  and  his  sub- 
jects. In  1660,  whilst  Charles  was  still  in  foreign  parts, 
but  was  on  the  point  of  returning,  it  was  resolved  that 
the  king's  name  should  appear  in  all  writs  to  which  it 
should  be  necessary  to  rittach  the  Great  Seal.  But  the 
only  Great  Seal  at  hand,  and  ready  for  use  at  that  tim.e 
of  countless  emergencies,  was  the  Rump's  "  Great  Seal," 
bearing  for  an  inscription  "  The  Great  Seal  of  England, 
165 1,  in  the  third  year  of  freedom,  by  God's  blessing 
restored."  A  select  committee  of  the  Commons  was  re- 
quested to  consider  "  whether  for  the  carrying  on  and 
present  expediting  of  the  justice  of  the  kingdom,  the 
House  shall  think  fit  that  the  Great  Seal  now  in  the  pos- 
session of  the  Earl  of  Manchester  and  the  other  Commis- 
sioners be  made  use  of  until  further  order?"  The  com- 
mittee reported  in  the  affirmative,  and  the  Commons 
besought  the  Lords  to  join  with  them  in  authorizing  the 
use  of  the  bauble.  But  the  hereditary  legislators  merely 
replied  that  '  they  would  return  an  answer  by  messen- 
gers of  their  own."  The  answer,  of  course  v/as  not  given  ; 
and  though  the  Lords  consented  to  wink  at  the  use  of 
the  republican  seal,  in  order  that  busir.ess  connected  witli 


-f6  PLEASANTRIES     OF    ENGLISH 

the  king's  reception  might  be  carried  out,  they  to  tlie 
last  abstained  from  prositively  sanctioning  its  employ- 
ment. There  was  some  real  difficulty  connected  with  the 
case.  Theoretically  the  commissioners  of  the  republican 
seal  had  become  the  king's  commissioners,  disharging 
the  functions  of  a  Lord  Keeper  of  a  duplicate  seal, 
whilst  tlic  king  and  his  Chancellor  were  out  of  the 
realm  ;  but  the  Act  of  Elizabeth,  passed  at  the  com- 
mencement of  Sir  Nicholas  Bacon's  tenure  of  the  seal, 
seemed  to  depriv^c  the  crown  of  the  right  to  a  chan- 
cellor and  a  keeper  holding  office  concurrently.  More- 
over, the  custom  for  rt^igning  kings  to  use  for  a  while  the 
seals  of  their  immediate  predecessors  did  not  put  out  of 
sight  the  inconsistency  of  employing  in  behalf  of  mon- 
archical principles  an  emblem  of  republican  government. 
Indeed,  in  the  opinion  of  many  persons,  that  usage  only 
pointed  the  indignity  offered  to  Charles  II.  in  the  pro- 
posal that  he  should,  by  the  hands  of  his  servants,  adopt 
a  seal  which  expressed  gratitude  to  heaven  for  the  dis- 
asters of  himself  and  his  family. 

In  a  sketch  of  the  rival  seals  there  is  no  need  to  men- 
tion the  seals  of  the  exiled  Stuarts,  after  their  final  ex- 
pulsion from  the  land  which  they  misgoverned.  When 
James  II.  had  established  his  mock  court  at  St.  Ger- 
main, a  Parisian  artist  engraved  for  him  a  new  seal, 
which  was  confided  to  the  care  of  Sir  Edward  Herbert, 
son  of  the  vSir  Edward  Herbert  who,  as  Charles  II.'s 
Lord  Keeper,  was  the  rival  and  enemy  of  Hyde.  The 
fate  of  Lord  Herbert  has  been  sufficiently  noticed.  It 
was  one  of  wretchedness  ;  and  the  fortunes  of  his  son 
were  scarcely  at  all  brighter.  The  grander  title  of  Lord 
Chancellor  v/as  indeed  given  him  by  the  banished  king; 
and  by  pseudo-royal  order  he  put  the  fictitious  seal  to  a 
parchment  that  styled  him  Baron  Portland  of  Port- 
land, in    the  county  of  Dorset.      But   patent,   seal,  and 


COURTS    AND    LAWYERS.  47 

king  were  alike  unreal :  and  the  poor  gentleman  died  in 
poverty,  a  commoner  and  an  exile,  at  the  close  of  the 
seventeenth  century. 

After  James's  death  in  1701,  his  queen  made  an  in- 
ventory, which  mentions  that  "  the  Great  Seals  of  Eng- 
land and  Ireland  in  silver,  and  that  of  Scotland  in 
brass,"  were  found  in  the  closet  of  the  royal  exile.  The 
silver  seals  were  broken  ;  and  of  the  silver,  together  with 
the  metal  of  a  "  chocolate  pot,"  a  "  mortar  and  pestle," 
a  "little  candlestick,"  and  another  domestic  utensil,  Mr. 
Groettier  made  new  seals  for  the  Old  Pretender,  who 
was  known  to  staunch  Jacobites  as  James  III. 


CHAPTER     IX. 

IT  is  not  known  when  the  custodians  of  Great  Seals  first 
began  to  keep  them  in  bags ;  but  it  is  certain  that  the 
clothing  of  Victoria's  Great  Seal  is  cut  after  an  ancient 
pattern.  When  the  seal  v/as  wrung  from  Wriothesley's 
grasp  and  laid  before  Somerset,  he  exclaimed,  "  I  am  at 
last  Lord  Protector  :"  and  as  the  words  passed  his  lips 
he  gazed  with  delight  on  the  red  velvet  bag  adorned  with 
the  royal  arms,  which  formed  the  outer  clothing  of  the 
Clavis  Regni.  The  Close  Roll  describing  the  transaction 
mentions  the  sacred  emblem  as  "  in  quadam  baga  de 
corio  inclusum  et  coopt.,  alia  baga  de  velveto  rubro  in- 
signiis  ornat."  This  is  one  of  the  earliest  appearances  of 
the  red  velvet  bag  which  from  the  middle  of  the  sixteenth 
century  down  to  the  present  time  is  conspicuous  amongst 
the  items  of  our  state  millinery.  Thus  attired,  tlie  seal 
of  Philip  and  Mary  was  delivered  by  that  queen  to  Arch- 
bishop Heath.  When  Sir  Nicholas  Bacon  received  Eliza- 
beth's new  Great  Seal,  he  sealed  it  in  its  leathern  re- 


48  PLEASANTRIES     OF    ENGLISH 

ccptacle,  and  then  put  it  into  a  red  velvet  bag  adorned 
with  the  ro}'ul  arms.  "  Ac  illud,"  says  the  Close  Roll, 
"  in  quandam  perulam  dc  corio  poni  et  sigillo  suo  pprio 
muniri  ct  sigiliari  fecit,  ac  sic  munitum  et  sigillatum  in 
quendain  sacculum  velveti  rubri  insigniis  regiis  decoratum 
posuit  illudque  penes  se  retinuit  et  retinet."  And  after 
the  suddeii  death  of  that  wise  and  gracious  counselor  of 
the  virgin  queen,  his  widow — the  "  gentle  saint  of 
heaven,"  as  her  son  Francis  called  her — found  the  Greai 
Seal  thus  enveloped.  On  the  very  day  of  her  lord's  death 
the  poor  lady,  stupefied  by  her  unexpected  bereavement, 
was  forced  to  receive  the  Lords  Burghley  and  Leicester, 
whom  the  queen  sent  to  York  House  to  demand  the 
Clavis  Regni.  Sealed  with  the  dead  man's  signet,  and 
hidden  in  its  gaudy  sack,  the  object  of  the  untimely  visit 
Avas  presented  to  the  noblemen  ;  and  having  thus  dis- 
charged her  duty,  the  widow  made  a  low  curtesy  to  the 
queen's  ambassadors,  and  retired  to  kneel  beside  a  silent 
bed,  or  weep  over  her  fatherless  children. 

On  less  mournful  occasions  the  red  velvet  bag  reap- 
pears ;  giving  color  and  brightness  to  ball-rooms  and  state 
pageants.  Shortly  before  death  saved  him  from  the 
shame  of  official  degradation,  Hatton  was  holding  in  his 
hand  the  splendid  bag,  when  at  a  tilting  he  saw  Eliza- 
beth present  a  golden  chess  queen  to  Charles  Blount,  the 
handsome  student  of  the  Liner  Temple.  As  the  envious 
Chancellor  saw  the  exulting  youngster  bind  the  trophy 
to  his  arm  with  crimson  riband,  he  recalled  the  happy 
days  when  he  was  the  most  comely  and  popular  student 
of  the  Lins--the  happy  days  when  he  knew  the  joys  of 
ambition,  and  had  no  heed  for  the  penalties  of  success. 
Failing  in  health,  and  rapidly  falling  in  the  queen's 
lavor,  the  Chancellor  thought  of  the  past ;  and  emotions  cf 
envy,  shame,  and  disappointment  gave  his  cheek  a  coloi 
that  matched  the  hue  of  his  own  bae  and  rival's  riband. 


COURTS    AND     LAWYERS.  49 

The  case  had  altered  since  he  was  wont  to  keep  high 
revel,  and  bring  around  the  lady  who  was  his  sovereign 
and  his  guest  a  galaxy  of  wits,  beauties,  and  fine  gentle- 
men, equal  in  splendor  and  virtue  to  the  tlirong  of  any 
court  in  Christendom.  In  allusion  to  these  entertain- 
ments (which  by  the  way  never  occurred  "  within  the 
spacious  walls"  to  which  the  poet  assigned  them)  Gray's 
familiar  lines  run  : — 

"  Full  oft  within  the  spacious  walls, 

When  he  had  fifty  winters  o'er  him, 
My  grave  Lord  Keeper  led  the  brawls, 
The  seal  and  maces  danc'd  before  him. 

"  His  bushy  beard  and  shoe-strings  green, 
His  high-crown'd  hat  and  satin  doublet, 
Moved  the  stout  heart  of  England's  queen, 

Though  Pope  and  Spaniard  could  not  trouble  it." 

Satisfied  with  the  music  and  ease  of  Gray's  humorous 
and  oft-q'ioted  lines,  readers  seldom  pause  to  question 
their  accuracy.  Even  in  Pope  there  are  not  many  cases 
where  more  misstatement  has  been  crammed  into  eight 
verses.  When  he  had  turned  fifty  poor  Hatton's  dancing 
days  were  over  ;  if  he  danced  at  all,  his  heart  did  not 
keep  time  with  his  feet.  He  died  at  the  age  of  fifty-one 
years,  and  after  his  installment  as  Knight  of  the  Garter 
his  decadence  was  steady  and  rapid,  although  at  the 
sacrifice  of  self-respect  he  retained  the  seals  to  his  death. 
By  the  time  he  was  fifty  Elizabeth  had  discarded  him  as 
a  drawing-room  knight,  though  respect  for  him  as  a  man 
of  business  (a  side  of  his  character,  by  the  way,  to  which 
none  of  Hatton's  biographers  pay  proper  attention) 
made  her  resolve  to  keep  him  yet  a  little  longer  in  her 
service.  Moreover,  Hatton  was  Lord  Chancellor,  not 
Lord  Keeper.  For  the  wrong  done  him  by  this  under- 
statement of  his  rank  the  poet  atones  in  the  followihg 
line  by  giving  him  any  number  of  maces,  whereas  the 
Chancellor's  office  only  gave  him  one. 

After  Hatton's  death,  the  Great  Seal  was  found  by 
I.— 4 


50  PLEASANTRIES    OE    ENGLISH 

the  queen's  messengers,  Lord  Cobham  and  Lord  Buck- 
hurst,  enclosed  in  a  red  chest,  as  well  as  in  a  red  purse. 
Having  received  it  "  in  cista  de  ferro  colori  rubri  sub 
clavi  nuper  cancellarrii  reclusa,"  they  conveyed  it  to  the 
queen  at  Westminster.  It  is  most  probable  that  the 
Chancellor,  dying  of  a  fatal  malady,  rather  than  of  that 
mortification  at  his  loss  of  the  queen's  favor,  about  which 
biographers  has  said  too  much,  put  his  seal  upon  the 
chest  when  he  felt  his  end  drawing  nigh.  Edward  IIL's 
Chancellor,  Thorpe,  with  similar  care  put  his  seal,  and 
Chief  Justice  Knight's  device,  to  the  receptacle  of  the 
Clavis  Rcgni,  when  he  saw  that  his  powers  were  nigh  ex- 
tinction ;  and  the  language  of  the  Close  Roll  justifies 
the  inference  that  this  precaution  was  expected  of  a 
Chancellor  at  the  point  of  death. 

The  dying  Egerton  yielded  his  official  trust,  whilst 
Death  standing  over  him,  hesitated  to  touch  his  palsied 
form.  The  old  Chancellor's  last  days  were  disturbed  by 
a  visit  from  Buckingham  and  Secretary  Winwood,  who 
came  to  York  House  for  the  seal,  which  was  delivered  to 
them  in  its  white  leather  case,  and  crimson  covering. 
When  Francis  Bacon's  successor,  Lord  Keeper  Williams, 
placed  the  seal  in  the  hands  of  Sir  John  Suckling,  for 
transmission  to  James  L,  it  was  locked  in  a  costly  cabinet, 
the  key  of  the  box  being  enclosed  in  a  letter  to  the  king, 
which  was  sealed  with  the  episcopal  seal  of  Lincoln. 

Amongst  the  sights  which  warmed  the  hearts  of  cava- 
liers at  the  Restoration  was  the  reappearance  of  the  red 
velvet  purse,  emblazoned  with  the  royal  arms  ;  and  from 
that  time  the  purse  of  state  has  been  a  principal  item  in 
the  list  of  every  Chancellor's  official  possessions.  Once 
it  was  conspicuous  by  its  absence.  When  Lord  Keeper 
Guildford  died  at  Wroxton,  after  weeks  of  acute  suffer- 
ing and  qucrulousness,  the  executors  bore  the  seal  with 
fitting  expedition  to  Windsor,  where  James  H.  received 


COURTS    AND     LAIVYLRS.  51 

"the  pestiferous  lump  of  metal,"  which  he  had  alieady 
in  his  mind  assigned  to  Jeffre\/s,  and  which  was  destined 
to  pass  into  the  hands  of  William  III.,  after  a  brief 
period  of  submersion  in  the  Thames.  On  that  occasion 
the  seal  was  in  the  silk  purse,  but  not  a  purse  of  state; 
and  James,  on  asking  why  it  was  produced  in  so  mean  a 
bag,  was  answered  that  the  more  splendid  sack  had  not 
been  conveyed  from  London  to  VVroxton  by  the  late 
Lord  Keeper.  "  \n  a  few  hours,"  says  Roger  North,  in 
his  life  of  his  brother  Francis,  "  after  his  lordship's  ej-es 
were  closed,  and  his  will  known  in  the  family,  which  ap- 
pointed his  brothers  to  be  executors,  all  the  officers  of 
the  seal  then  in  the  house,  came  in  a  body  to  know  what 
the  pleasure  of  the  executors  was,  touching  the  Great 
Seal;  as  if  it  had  been  a  matter  in  danger  of  being  over- 
seen. The  executors  immediately  ordered  them  all  to 
be  ready  the  next  morning,  to  go  along  with  it  to 
Windsor,  where  the  king  was  ;  and  the  state  equipage 
being  made  ready  for  the  executors  themselves,  they 
took  the  strong  box,  in  which  the  seal  was  kept,  and  that 
inclosed  in  a  silk  bag,  which  was  also  sealed  with  his 
lordship's  seal.  Such  a  sacred  thing  is  that  pestiferous 
lump  of  metal!  The  same  night  the  executors  arrived, 
they  waited  upon  the  king,  who  said,  "  He  heard  that 
his  lordship  was  much  mended."  The  seal  was  delivered 
in  the  bag  (sealed)  into  the  king's  own  hand,  who  took 
the  bag,  and  asked  if  there  was  never  a  purse  (of  state), 
and  it  was  answered  that  none  was  brougl?t  down.  The 
king  said  no  more  to  them  ;  whereupon  the  executors 
retired;  and  as  had  been  long  before  projected,  the  Great 
Seal  was  put  into  the  Lord  Jeffreys'  hands,  with  the  style 
of  Lord  High  Chancellor  of  England." 

Roger  North  had  good  reason  for  calling  the  seal  a 
"pestiferous  lump  of  metal."  Its  acquisition  in  no  way 
added  to  Francis  North's  happiness,  and  greatly  aggra- 


5  a  PLEASANTRIES     OE    ENGLISH 

vated  the  odium  which  surrounded  him  during  life,  and 
endures  to  the  present  day.  Combining  the  prudence  of 
the  knave  with  the  caution  of  a  coward,  Francis  North 
had  more  than  once  endeavored  to  escape  from  the  dangers 
of  poHtical  service,  and  expressed  his  anxiety  to  purchase 
security  and  comparative  repose  by  the  sacrifice  of  his 
chances  of  the  highest  legal  post,  and  also  by  the  sacri- 
fice of  money.  "  Among  all  the  preferments  of  the  law," 
says  Roger  North,  "his  thoughts  fixed  upon  the  place  of 
Lord  Chief  Justice  of  the  Common  Pleas  ;  for  he  knew 
h.is  own  skill  in  the  law  so  well  as  to  be  assured  that  he 
was  not  unfit  for  it,  and  chose  it  the  rather  because  the 
business  was  wholly  matter  of  pure  law,  and  had  little  to 
do  in  criminal  cases  or  court  intrigues;  and  he  could 
answer  for  the  rigid  integrity  of  his  determinations."  His 
professional  income,  whilst  he  was  Attorney-General, 
amounted  nearly  to  seven  thousand  pounds  per  annum, 
"  and  the  cushion  of  the  Common  Pleas  "  brought  barely 
four  thousand  a  year.  But  he  accepted  "  the  cushion  " 
for  the  sake  of  repose  and  freedom  from  temptation 
which  he  had  not  courage  to  resist.  In  an  evil  hour  am- 
bition and  cupidity  broke  down  his  prudent  resolves,  and 
he  accepted  the  seals  on  bad  terms,  being  pursuaded 
to  take  office  with  a  pension  of  two  thousand  pounds  per 
annum,  whereas  his  predecessor  had  successfully  bar- 
gained for  four  thousand  a  year.  Giving  him  the  seal, 
Charles  11.  said,  "  Here,  my  lord,  take  it  ;  you  will  find 
it  heavy."  And  Rogers  adds,  "Therein  His  Majesty 
acted  the  prophet,  as  well  as  the  king  ;  for,  not  long  be- 
fore his  lordship's  last  sickness,  he  told  me  and  divers 
other  of  his  friends  '  that  he  had  not  enjoyed  one  easy 
and  contented  minute  since  he  had  the  seal.'  " 

Few  chancellors  have  borne  the  seals  more  lighth'than 
Anthony  Ashley  Cooper,  Earl  of  Shaftesbury, — t)ie  wit 
of  whom  Charles  H.  said,  "My  chancellor  knows  more 


COURTS    AND    LAWYERS.  53 

law  than  all  ray  judges,  and  more  divinity  than  all  my 
bishops  ;"  and  the  partisan  who  was  placed  on  the  wool- 
sack solely  in  order  that  he  might  violate  the  law,  and 
who,  after  he  had  fulfilled  the  infamous  purpose  of  his 
elevation,  was  extolled  by  Dryden's  venal  muse  as  a 
miracle  of  judicial  purity.  He  clutched  the  seals,  well 
knowing  that  they  would  draw  upon  him  the  indignation 
of  honest  men  and  the  contempt  of  competent  lawyers; 
but  the  reckless  politician  held  cheap  the  opinions  of 
honest  men,  and  the  courtier  who  was  never  even  called 
to  the  bar  had  neither  respect  for  the  learning,  nor  belief 
in  the  integrity  of  lawyers.  He  began  his  judicial  career 
with  characteristic  cleverness  and  levity.  Knowing  that 
the  legal  dignitaries  were  laughing  in  their  sleeves  at  his 
advancement,  he  resolved  to  render  them  ridiculous  in 
the  eyes  of  the  London  mob;  and  for  that  purpose  he 
required  the  judges,  in  accordance  with  an  old  custom 
revived  at  the  Restoration  and  discontinued  since  1665, 
to  attend  him  from  his  residence  in  the  Strand  to  West- 
minster Hall,  not  in  their  carriages,  but  on  horseback. 
Never  had  London  witnessed  a  more  ludicrous  spectacle 
than  this  procession  of  mounted  lawyers,  many  of  whom 
had  not  for  years  been  in  the  saddle,  some  of  whom  had 
never  had  a  riding  lesson.  Poor  Judge  Twisden's  dis- 
comfiture, and  the  other  absurd  incidents  of  that  pro- 
gress, will  be  fully  described  in  another  chapter.  For  the 
present  it  is  enough  to  say  that  the  cavalcade  achieved  its 
end  in  making  the  gentlemen  of  the  long  robe  sore  at 
heart — and  elsewhere.  Shaftesbury,  a  perfect  horseman, 
won  the  applause  of  the  crowd,  unable  to  doubt  the  com- 
petency of  a  Chancellor  whose  seat  was  perfect  in  the 
saddle;  but  he  fared  less  to  his  own  satisfaction  when  he 
was  required  to  deliver  decisions  before  the  dismounted 
bar.  King's  counsel,  sergeants,  and  utter-barristers  per- 
plexed iiim  with  mischievous  questions  and  unintelligible 


IJ4  PLEA  SAX  TRIES     OF    EXGIJSII 

motions:  and  da}'  after  day  forced  him  to  contradict  his 
own  judgments.  Roger  North  assures  us  that  this  search- 
ing discipline  soon  taught  the  Chancellor  modesty,  and 
thdt  "  from  a  trade  of  perpetually  making  and  unmaking 
his  own  orders,  he  fell  to  be  the  tamest  judge,  and,  as  to 
all  forms  and  course,  resigned  to  the  disposition  of  the 
bar,  that  ever  sat  on  the  bench."  But  though  after 
rough  lessons  he  had  the  prudence  to  hold  his  peace, 
and  interfere  as  little  as  possible  with  matters  that  were 
beyond  his  comprehension,  he  continued  to  preside  in 
his  court  with  undiminished  good-humor,  if  not  with 
undiminished  effrontery,  looking  "  more  like  a  rakish 
young  nobleman  at  the  university  than  a  Lord  Chancel- 
lor," and  attired  ''  in  an  ash-colored  gown,  silver-laced, 
and  full-ribboned  pantaloons  displayed,  without  an" 
black  at  all  in  his  garb,  unless  it  were  his  hat." 

But  the  best  fun  of  Shaftesbury's  chancellorship  did 
not  appear  till  the  very  moment  when  his  rivals  at  court 
ousted  him  out  of  the  judicial  seat  which  he  occupied 
for  nearly  thirteen  months.  It  was  arranged  that  his  de- 
gradation should  be  consummated  on  Sunday,  November 
9,  1673,  when  in  the  ordinary  discharge  of  official  duty 
he  came  to  Whitehall  to  attend  on  the  king  at  chapel. 
1  he  triumph  of  his  enemies  was  no  secret  to  hiivi,  and 
w  hen  he  saw  an  unusually  dense  throng  of  gallants  and 
beauties  assembled  in  the  galleries  and  on  the  stairs  of 
the  palace,  he  needed  no  assurance  that  they  ha:'  come 
to  witness  his  dismissal.  For  a  minute  there  was  a  hush 
of  busy  tongues,  as  he  passed  through  the  crowd  to  the 
king's  closet.  He  was  still  Lord  Chancellor,  and  showing 
the  respect  due  to  his  office  the  loungers  drew  aside  and 
made  a  passage  for  him  with  suitable  obeisance.  But 
he  would  in  another  minute  be  an  r.r-Chanccl!or,  and  as 
he  passed  on  with  firm,  light  step,  bearing  the  purse  of 
state  in  his  right  hand,  the  courtly  mob  closed  in  upon 


COURTS    AND     LAWYERS.  53 

his  heels,  and  exchanged  mischievous  smiles  and  curious 
glances. 

Soon  the  Chancellor  was  on  his  knee  in  the  royal 
closet,  kissing  the  king's  hand. 

*'  Sir,"  he  said,  "  I  know  you  intend  to  give  the  seals 
to  the  Attorney  General,  but  I  am  sure  your  Majesty 
never  designed  to  dismiss  me  with  contempt." 

"  God's  fish,  my  lord,"  answered  Charles,  who  could 
be  cruel  to  his  friends  when  their  backs  were  turned,  but 
found  it  difficult  to  be  uncivil  to  his  enemies  when  they 
looked  him  in  the  face,  "  I  will  not  do  it  with  any  cir- 
cumstance that  may  look  like  an  affi-ont." 

"  Then,  sir,"  entreated  the  earl,  "  I  desire  your  Ma- 
jesty will  permit  me  to  carry  the  seals  before  you  to 
chapel,  and  will  send  for  them  afterwards  to  my  house." 

Of  course  the  request  was  granted. 

Till  the  time  arrived  for  the  congregation  to  enter  the 
chapel,  Shaftesbury  kept  his  sovereign  merry  with  good 
stories,  and  when  the  Protestant  king  passed  from  his 
closet  to  chapel  through  two  rows  of  courtiers,  with 
amazement  they  saw  him  in  friendly  conversation  with 
the  Keeper  of  his  Conscience,  and  Heneage  Finch  turned 
white  with  apprehension,  as  his  eyes  fell  on  the  purse  of 
state,  which  the  foppish  chancellor  still  swung  jauntily 
to  and  fro  as  he  laughed   gaily  at  one  of  Charles's  jokes." 

Here  is  a  subject  for  a  painter. 

The  circumstances  of  Lord  Erskine's  resignation  of 
the  seals  recalled  the  fun  of  Shaftesbury's  retirement. 
Having  received  notice  of  dismissal,  Erskine,  March  25, 
1807,  took  leave  of  the  bar  in  a  speech  delivered  in 
Lincoln's  Inn  Hall,  where  the  Chancellor  then  held  his 
court.  The  next  day,  he  re-appeared — to  the  surprise 
of  all  Chancery  practitioners,  and  much  to  the  chagrin 
of  those  who  looked  for  preferment  and  favor  under 
Lord  Eldon.    The  commotion  of  the  gownsmen  was  not 


56  PLEASANTRIES     OF    ENGLISH 

i^veater  than  that  of  the  courtiers  and  ministers  on  the 
preceding  da}%  when  they  saw  Erskine  return  from  his 
conference  with  the  king,  bearing  the  purse  of  state  in 
his  hand.  Their  consternation  ceased  on  learning  that 
the  monarch  had  requested  Erskine  to  hold  office  for  a 
few  days  longer,  until  he  had  disposed  of  certain  causes 
v/hich  he  had  partly  heard.  The  seal  was  finally  surren- 
dered on  April  7,  between  which  date  and  the  preceding 
March  25,  Erskine  braved  the  disapproval  of  political  ad- 
versaries, and  provided  for  his  son-in-law,  Edward  Morris, 
by  appointing  him  to  a  mastership  in  Chancery,  which 
Sir  William  Pepys  was  prevailed  upon  to  resign. 

In  recent  times  the  purses  of  state  have  been  pre- 
served in  legal  families,  as  precious  memorials  of  judicial 
eminence.  Of  course,  their  value  is  trifling  in  compari- 
son with  damasked  seals;  since  the  purses  are  renewed 
yearly,  consequently  every  Chancellor  who  holds  office 
for  twelve  months  can  claim  one  of  the  gaudy  sacks  as  a 
perquisite  of  his  place.  Amongst  the  many  pleasantly 
malicious  stories  told  of  Lady  Hardwicke's  meanness, 
was  a  fabrication  that  she  stole  tJie  purse  of  state  and 
made  it  into  a  counterpane.  The  good-natured  people 
who  accepted  this  jest  for  truth,  never  troubled  them- 
selves to  inquire  if  a  single  purse  was  so  large  that  it 
could  be  converted  into  a  covelet  for  a  bed.  The  story 
had  its  foundation  in  the  fact  that  Lady  Hardwicke 
hung  a  state  bedroom  and-  state  bed  at  Wimpole  with 
crimson  velvet,  adorning  the  rich  drapery  with  twenty 
purses,  emblazoned  with  royal  arms.  The  twenty  purses 
had  fallen  to  her  husband  during  his  tenure  of  the  seals, 
and  her  ladyship's  mode  of  turning  them  to  use  certainly 
in  no  way  merits  ridicule. 


COURTS    AND    LAWYERS.  57 


CHAPTER      X. 

THE  Great  Seal  is  not  often  seen  in  the  weak  hands 
of  children  or  women.  Infant  monarchs  have 
dropped  the  broad  piece  into  the  eager  fingers  of  newly- 
appointed  keepers,  and  queens  of  England  have  placed 
the  lump  of  pestiferous  metal  upon  the  open  palms  of 
Chancellors  ;  but  when  a  woman  beneath  the  rank  of  a 
queen  is  discovered  with  the  Clavis  Rcgiii  in  her  grasp, 
she  is  in  most  cases  merely  surrendering  the  bauble  which 
fate  has  forbidden  her  husband  to  carry  any  longer.  Thus 
history  exhibits  Francis  Bacon's  mother  making  delivery 
of  the  seal  after  her  husband's  death  ;  and  in  like  man- 
ner, when  Whitelock  could  no  further  protract  his  game 
of  timorous  ambition,  Lady  Whitelock  carried  to  Lenthal 
the  Great  Seal,  which  her  husband  could  not  without 
peril  retain  for  another  day.  That  mother  of  many 
children  was  full  of  anxious  fear  when  she  was  ushered 
into  Mr.  Speaker's  presence,  and  proffered  him  the  box 
which  contained  the  republican  device.  As  he  took  the 
key  from  her  trembling  hand,  and  looked  down  upon  her 
pale  face,  doubtless  Mr.  Speaker  cheered  her  heart  by 
inquiring  with  significant  kindness  for  the  health  of  the 
lawyer  who  had  wisely  deputed  her  to  act  for  him. 

One  case  there  is,  however,  where  the  Great  Seal  is 
found  in  the  hands  of  a  woman  appointed  to  act  as  cus- 
todian of  her  sovereign's  conscience,  and  to  dischaage 
the  functions  of  a  Lord  Chancellor. 

The  lady  thus  signally  preferred  above  the  rest  of 
her  sex  was  Eleanor  of  Provence — the  beautiful,  lavish, 
witty,  extortionate  queen  who  w^rote  a  poem  in  her  na- 
tive tongue  ere  she  had  completed  her  fourteenth  year; 
plundered  the  worthy  citizens  of  London  at  the  quay — 
styled  Queenhithe  even  to  this  day;  enraged  nobles  and 


58  PLEASANTRIES    OF    ENGLISH 

churchmen  by  the  favors  which  she  distributed  amongst 
her  relations  ;  narrowly  escaped  death  at  the  hands  of 
the  London  citizens  who  would  fain  have  drowned  her 
for  a  witch  ;  and,  after  countless  strange  experiences, 
closed  her  career  in  the  religious  quietude  of  a  holy 
house.  Legend  and  chronicle  preserve  the  memory  of 
her  singular  grace  and  lively  humor,  the  brightness  of 
her  jewels,  and  the  splendor  of  her  state,  her  unjust  acts 
and  evil  fame.     Piers  of  Langtoft  sings — 

"  Henry,  owre  Kynge,  at  Weslminster  tuke  to  wyfe 
Th'  Earle's  daughter  of  Provence,  the  fayrest  Maye  in  life. 
Her  name  Elinor,  of  gentle  nurture  ; 
Beyond  the  sea  there  was  no  suche  creature." 

But  of  all  the  strange  accidents  which  befel  the  fair 
and  false  mother  of  Edv/ard  L,  her  elevation  to  the  post 
of  Lady  Keeper  was  perhaps  the  most  laughable.  Having 
occasion  to  cross  the  sea  and  visit  Gascony,  A.  D.  1253 
Henry  HL  made  her  Keeper  of  the  Seal  during  his  ab- 
sence;  and  in  that  character  she  in  her  own  person  pre- 
sided in  the  Aula  Regia,  hearing  causes  and,  it  is  to  be 
feared,  forming  her  decisions  less  in  accordance  with 
justice  than  her  own  private  interests.  Never  did  judge 
set  law  and  equity  more  fearfully  at  nought.  Not  con- 
tent with  the  exorbitant  sums  which  she  wrung  from  the 
merchants  whom  she  compelled  to  unload  their  ships  at 
her  royal  hythe,  the  Lady  Keeper  required  the  City  to 
pay  her  a  large  sum — due  to  her,  as  she  pretended,  from 
arrears  of  "  queen  gold  ;"  and  when  Richard  Picard  and 
John  de  Northampton,  sheriffs  of  London,  had  the  pre- 
sumption to  resist  this  claim,  she  very  promptly  packed 
them  off  to  the  Marshalsea.  Having  thus  disposed  of 
the  sheriffs,  she,  on  equally  unlawful  ground.s,  subjected 
the  Lord  Mayor  to  like  treatment. 

But  the  great  event  during  her  tenure  of  the  seals  was 
the  birth  of  her  daughter  Catherine,  on  St.  Catherine's 


COURTS    AND    LAWYERS. 


59 


Day,  1353.  The  Keeper  of  the  Seals  was  not  actually- 
delivered  on  the  bed  of  justice  ;  but  with  only  a  slight 
departure  from  literal  truth,  the  historian  may  affirm 
that  the  little  princess  was  born  upon  the  woolsack. 


c-^.^1^^ 


II: 


LAWYERS    IN   ARMS 


CHAPTER      XI. 

FOR  centuries  the  majority  of  our  English  lawyers 
were  ecclesiastics  ;  and  for  centuries  our  mitred 
judges  evinced  no  reluctance  to  mount  horse  and  wear 
mail.  Chief  Justiciar  Odo,  a  type  of  these  holy  and 
martial  lawyers,  certainly  contributed  as  much  as  Wil- 
liam to  the  success  of  the  Norman  invasion.  It  was  his 
voice  that,  thundering  from  Norman  pulpits,  stirred 
grim  barons  and  impetuous  knights  to  support  their 
feudal  chieftain  ;  it  was  his  purse  that  equipped  a  fleet 
for  the  cause,  and  armed  a  company  of  chosen  warriors  ; 
and  having  giving  words  and  money,  he  was  no  less 
willing  to  give  his  blood.  When  the  French  lines 
covered  the  Sussex  coast,  his  clear,  tremulous,  earnest 
utterances  assured  them  that  the  God  of  Hosts  was  on 
their  side,  that  those  of  them  who  outlived  the  -battle 
would  be  victors,  and  that  those  who  fell  would  join  the 
blessed  saints.  And  having  thus  spoken  and  celebrated 
the  holy  mass,  the  bishop  laid  aside  his  sacred  vestments, 
mounted  his  white  war-horse,  and  grasping  his  baton, 
rode  in  the  van  of  that  fierce  flood  of  chivalry  which 
swept  a  nation  to  the  earth,  and  bore  the  victor  to  a 
throne.  The  Bayeux  tapestry  preserves  the  story  of  tnis 
man  of  God  and  war  ;  and  history  tells  how,  when  the 


COURTS    AND    LAWYERS.  6i 

battle  had  been  won,  he  became  his  brother's  chief 
justiciar,  and  spoke  cruel  judgments  from  the  seat  to 
which  he  had  climbed  over  the  bodies  of  dead  men.  Al- 
ternately fighting  and  preaching,  he  harried  rebellious 
districts  with  fire  and  sword,  and  scattered  words  of  ban 
and  blessing  over  hard-fought  fields.  "  In  seculari  ejus 
functione,"  says  the  historian,  "  non  solum  rem  exercuit 
judiciariam ;  sed  bellis  utique  assuefactus  exercitum, 
Randulphi  Comitis  Estanglias,  suorumque  confa^der- 
atorum,  profligavit ;  et  in  ultione  necis  Walteri  Dunel- 
mensis  Episcopi,  Northumbriam  late  populatus  est." 

Like  Odo,  the  Conqueror's  Chancellor,  Osmond  was  a 
soldier  and  a  bishop.  Like  Francis  North  and  George 
Jeffreys,  he  was  also  a  musician  ;  and  as  the  author  of 
the  "  Life  and  Miracles  of  Alden,  a  Saxon  Saint,  the 
First  Bishop  of  Sherborne,"  he  won  a  name  in  letters. 

Ralph  de  Hengham  (Chief  Justice  of  the  King's  Bench 
under  Edward  L,  and  Chief  Justice  of  the  Common  Pleas 
under  Edward  IL)  is  generally  regarded  as  the  first  of 
our  non-military  common  law  judges  ;  but  it  would  be 
difficult  to  prove  that  the  author  of  the  quaint  old  law- 
book, "  Randulphi  de  Hengham  Edward  Regis  I  Capi- 
talis  Olim  Justitiarii  siuiiiacc,"  never  spurred  horse 
against  a  foe.  Lord  Campbell  says,  roundly,  *'  He  may 
truly  be  considered  the  father  of  the  common  law  judges. 
He  was  the  first  of  them  who  never  put  on  a  coat  of 
mail  ;  and  he  has  had  a  long  line  of  illustrious  successors 
contented  with  the  ermine  robe."  It  is,  however, 
scarcely  credible  that  this  chief  justice  of  a  migratory 
court  in  the  thirteenth  century  never  wore  mail.  When 
it  is  borne  in  mind  that  even  within  the  memory  of 
living  men  lawyers  riding  circuit  deemed  it  prudent  to 
carry  firearms  for  their  personal  security,  it  is  not  to  be 
imagined  that  De  Hengham  never  donned  such  steel 
clothing  as  was  worn  by  all  gentlemen  of  his  time. 


62  PLEASANTRIES    OF    ENGLISH 

He  may,  however,  be  ranked  with  non-military  kiw- 
yers  ;  and  army  men  may  be  allowed  to  tell  with  glee 
how  the  first  non-militant  Chief  Justice  became  a  famous 
rogue.  On  his  return  from  France  in  1289,  after  an  ab- 
sence of  three  years,  Edward  I.  was  received  with  com- 
plaints against  the  corruption  and  venality  of  his  judges. 
An  investigation  followed,  which  resulted  in  the  punish- 
ment of  De  Hengham  and  other  offenders. 

Long  after  the  ancient  military  functions  of  the  Grand 
Justiciar  had  ceased  to  exist,  chief  justices,  during  occa- 
sions of  especial  emergency,  exercised  military  as  well  as 
civil  powers.  When  the  Percies  rose  in  rebellion,  Henry 
IV.  empowered  Chief  Justice  Gascoigne  to  raise  forces 
for  the  subjugation  of  the  insurgents  ;  and  in  the  subse- 
quent rising  of  Scrope,  Archbishop  of  York,  and  Thomas 
Mowbray  Gascoigne  was  sent  to  aid  in  subduing  the 
malcontents. 

A  later  instance  of  this  union  of  civil  and  military 
power  in  the  person  of  a  chief  justice  occurred  in  1685, 
when  Jeffreys  set  out  for  the  Western  Circuit  on  his 
"  campaign,"  "  armed  not  only  with  a  commission  of 
Oyer  and  Terminer,  but  also  an  authority  to  coiuviand 
tJie  fo7-ccs  in  chiefs  in  the  disaffected  counties.  Thus 
appointed  to  destroy  on  the  battle-field,  as  well  as  the 
judgment  seat,  Jeffreys  was  styled  the  "  General  of  the 
West." 

A  more  humorous  instance  of  a  lawyer  in  arms  was  Sir 
Edward  Coke  in  the  summer  of  1617,  when  he  donned  a 
breast-plate  and  equipped  for  battle  rode  at  the  head  of 
an  armed  company,  from  London  to  Oatlands,  where  Lady 
Hatton  had  secreted  the  lovely  girl  of  whom  she  was  the 
vexatious   mother,  and   he  the   indignant   father.     The 

'  Roger  North's  expression,  "  to  command  the  forces  in  chief"  is  wortliy 
of  notice,  Ijeing  used  at  a  time  long  yxxox  to  the  title  "  comniander-in-chiet." 
—  V^ide  "  Life  of  Lord  Keeper  Guildford." 


COURTS    AND     LAWYERS.  6.3 

story  of  this  strange  scandalous  yVrt'r^^  has  been  told  by 
writers  of  different  views  and  tempers;  but  those  who 
oiost  disapprove  Coke's  violence,  and  those  who  are  most 
inclined  to  see  in  Lady  Hatton's  conduct  a  culpable  case 
of  conjugal  disobedience,  are  alike  compelled  to  stay  their 
indignation  and  give  way  to  merriment  as  they  imagine 
Coke's  bellicose  aspect,  and  recall  the  many  droll  cir- 
cumstances that  attended  the  storming  of  Lady  Hatton's 
retreat.  The  outer  gate  was  carried  by  the  invaders 
without  difficulty;  but  the  doughty  lawyer  struck  many 
a  good  blow,  and  smashed  more  than  one  strong  door, 
ere  he  had  passed  all  the  barricades  in  his  way,  and 
forced  a  passage  to  the  inner  room,  where  he  discovered 
his  rebellious  wife  and  the  child  of  whom  Jonson  sung — 

"  Though  your  either  cheek  discloses 
Mingled  baths  of  milk  and  roses  ; 
Though  your  lips  be  banks  of  blisses, 
Where  he  plants  and  gathers  kisses  ; 
And  yourself  the  reason  why 
Wisest  men  of  love  may  die  !" 

Seizing  this  lovely  girl.  Sir  Edward  carried  her  from  the 
house  in  his  arms,  placed  her  on  horseback  behind  her 
brother,  and  then  uttering  the  word  "  Forward  !"  started 
for  his  seat  at  State  Pogis,  whither  he  bore  his  prize  in 
triumph. 

Before  the  close  of  the  seventeenth  century,  the  law 
had  formed  a  closer  alliance  with  arms.  At  the  out- 
break of  the  civil  war  gentlemen  of  the  long  robe  were 
found  in  each  of  the  contending  parties.  Herbert  and 
Hyde  drew  sword  for  the  King;  Whitelock  and  St.  John 
served  under  the  Parliament.  That  the  lawyers  were 
more  ready  to  draw  sword  against  Charles  than  for  him 
is  a  fact  which  may  be  regarded  as  an  indication  of  the 
legal  view  taken  of  the  royal  policy  of  those  who  were 
best  qualified  to  answer  questions  of  constitutional  law; 
or    it    may   be    received    as   a    testimony   that    prudent 


64  PLEASANTRIES    OE    ENGLISH 

seekers  after  advancement  were  unwilling  to  devote  for- 
tune and  talents  to  a  cause  which  could  not  repay  them. 
Anyhow  it  is  notable  how  greatly  the  fighting  lawyers 
of  the  Parliament  outnumbered  those  of  the  King's 
party. 

The  Inns  of  Court,  however,  contained  a  strong  body 
of  barristers  and  students,  who  cherished  monarchical 
principles,  and  were  anxious  to  prove  their  loyalty  in  the 
field.  When  Lord  Keeper  Littleton  fixed  his  judgment- 
seat  in  the  schools  at  Oxford,  his  court  had  little  busi- 
ness, but  a  numerous  bar.  To  relieve  his  profession  from 
the  obloquy  of  repose,  at  a  time  when  men  of  all  ranks 
were  flying  to  arms,  the  Lord  Keeper  proposed  that  the 
lawyers  of  Oxford,  during  the  dearth  of  briefs,  should 
form  themselves  into  a  corps,  and  serve  the  king  as 
volunteers.  The  suggestion  was  acceptable  ;  and  Little- 
ton, by  no  means  deficient  in  personal  bravery,  not- 
withstanding his  moral  cowardice,  reported  the  matter  to 
Charles,  who  forthwith  authorized  him  to  raise  a  corps 
of  fighting  lawyers.  The  following  docket  of  the  king's 
commission  is  extant: — "A  commission  granted  to  Ed- 
ward Lord  Littleton,  Lo.  Keeper  of  the  Create  Scale,  to 
raise  a  regiment  of  foot  souldiers,  consisting  of  gent,  of 
the  Inns  of  Court  and  Chauncy,  and  of  all  ministers  and 
officers  belonging  to  the  Court  of  Chauncy,  and  their 
servants,  and  of  gent,  and  others  who  will  voluntarily  put 
themselves  under  his  command  to  serve  his  Ma"'  for  the 
security  of  the  Universitie  and  Cittie  of  Oxford.  T*  apud 
Oxon.  xxi.  die  Maij  A"  R.  R.  Caroli  xxi, 

"  per  Lpsm  Regem." 

During  the  short  interval  between  the  date  of  his 
commission  and  his  death,  Littleton  zealously  drilled  his 
recruits,  who  were  for  the  greater  part  d-ra\vn  from  the 
colleges.  Indeed  the  force  was  less  a  corps  of  lawyers 
than   a  regiment  of  university   men,  and    ought  to   be 


COURTS    AND     LAWYERS.  65 

compared  with  the  present  Oxford  University  Rifle 
Corps  rather  than  with  the  existing  "  Devil's  Own." 

A  comely  gentleman  and  good  swordsman,  Sir  Edward 
Littleton  was  no  unsuitable  chieftain  for  the  corps,  but  in 
the  August  following  the  enrolment  he  was  caught  by  a 
violent  storm  while  drilling  his  men  in  Bagley  Wood, 
and  a  severe  cold,  consequent  on  exposure  to  rain, 
brought  about  his  unanticipated  death  in  1645. 

One  of  the  first  lawyers  to  join  the  parliamentary 
forces  was  Bulstrode  Whitelock,  still  a  young  man  when 
Charles  unfurled  his  standard  at  Nottingham.  Followed 
by  the  tenants  of  his  estate  and  a  few  personal  friends, 
Whitelock  accepted  a  captaincy  in  Hampden's  regiment 
of  horse,  and  took  part  in  the  military  occupation  of 
Oxford,  where  the  parliamentary  soldiers  met  with  a  cold 
reception  from  the  gownsmen,  who  subsequently  wel- 
comed the  royalist  army  with  acclamations.  To  teach 
the  lawyer  that  civil  war  was  far  from  being  a  pleasant 
pastime.  Prince  Rupert  and  his  men  took  possession  of 
Fawley  Court,  Whitelock's  house,  near  Henley,  and  ac- 
cording to  the  owner's  ex-parte  but  most  creditable  ac- 
count, "  indulging  in  excess  and  rapine  of  every  kind, 
destroyed  his  books,  deeds,  and  manuscripts,  cut  open 
his  bedding,  carried  away  his  coach  and  four  horses  and 
all  his  saddle-horses,  killed  his  hounds,  of  which  he  had 
a  very  fine  pack,  and  destroyed  all  his  deer  and  winged 
game."  The  memory  of  this  desolation  of  his  home  long 
rankled  in  Whitelock's  breast,  and  more  than  once  during 
the  period  twixt  the  commencement  of  the  civil  war  and 
the  restoration  of  the  Stuart  dynasty,  he  was  the  subject 
of  affronts  that  brought  vividly  to  his  mind  the  perils  he 
encountered  and  the  losses  he  endured  w^hile  bearing  a 
commission  in  Hampden's  cavalry. 

Cromwell's  officers  were  inclined  to  think  that  the 
country  should  be  governed  by  pious  soldiers  ;  and  not- 


o6  PLEASANTRIES     OF    ENGLISH 

A'ithstanding  the  number  and  influence  of  the  lawyers 
who  had  served  the  republic  in  camp  as  well  as  at  West- 
minster, the  more  zealous  Puritans  entertained  strong 
urejudices  against  the  legal  profession,  and  were  almost 
unanimous  in  holding  that  non-military  wearers  of  the 
long-robe  should  be  excluded  from  the  House  of  Com- 
mons, Some  of  Whitelock's  most  amusing  reminiscences 
t'lrn  upon  the  antagonism  of  the  men  of  God  to  the 
••  sons  of  Zeruiah,"  by  which  title  lawyers  were  then  com- 
monly known.  In  the  autumn  of  1649  a  republican  soldier, 
who  in  one  respect  closely  resembled  Cardinal  Beaufort, 
warmly  urged  upon  the  commons  that  they  should  ex- 
clude all  lawyers  from  Parliament,  and  that  if  they  could 
not  find  heart  to  take  so  decided  a  course,  they  ought  at 
least  to  resolve  that  while  lawyers  sat  in  Parliament  they 
should  relinquish  practice.  Whitelock's  reply  was  strong 
with  reason  and  sarcasm.  From  the  days  of  the  Parlia- 
mentum  Indoctum,  which  lawyers  were  forbidden  to  en- 
ter, till  the  days  of  his  own  connexion  with  Sir  Edward 
Coke,  Whitelock  set  forth  the  services  which  his  profes- 
sion had  rendered  to  the  legislation  of  the  country,  and 
pointed  out  the  blunders  into  which  parliament  had  fall- 
en u  hen  they  presumed  to  act  without  their  guidance,  or 
in  opposition  to  the  advice,  of  legal  authorities.  "As  to 
the  sarcasms,"  he  continued,  "  on  lawyers  for  not  fighting, 
1  deem  that  the  gown  does  neither  abate  a  man's  courage 
or  his  wisdom,  nor  render  him  less  capable  of  using  a 
sword  when  the  laws  are  silent.  Witness  the  great  services 
performed  by  Lieutenant- General  Jones  and  Commissary 
Ireton,  and  many  other  lawyers,  who  putting  off  their 
gowns  when  the  parliament  required  it,  have  served 
stoutly  and  successfully  as  soldiers,  and  have  undergone 
almost  as  much  and  as  great  hardships  and  dangers  as  the 
honorable  gentleman  who  so  much  undervalue  them. 
W  ith  respect  to  the  proposal  for  compelling  lawyers  to 


COURTS    AND     LAWYERS.  67 

suspend  their  practice  while  they  sit  in  parliament,  I  only 
insist  that  in  the  act  for  that  purpose  it  be  provided  that 
merchants  forbear  from  their  trading,  physicians  from 
visiting  their  patients,  and  country  gentlemen  from  sell- 
ing their  corn  or  wool  while  they  are  members  of  that 
house." 

The  motion  was  of  course  withdrawn,  and  the  maker 
well  laughed  at;  but  the  feeling  of  the  House  is  shown 
far  less  by  the  withdrawal  of  the  proposal  than  by  the 
fact  that  Whitelock  felt  it  necessary  to  reply  with  grave 
and  elaborate  argument.  The  same  argument  was  contin- 
ually reappearing.  Some  four  years  later  the  Barebones 
Parliament  showed  their  low  opinion  of  the  sons  of 
Zeruiah,  by  proposing  to  abolish  Chancery  on  the  ex- 
piration of  a  month  after  their  decision.  By  a  resolution 
the  Parliament  actually  suspended  Chancery  for  a  month  ; 
and  when  the  bill  for  the  total  abolition  of  the  court 
came  to  a  decision,  it  was  thrown  out  by  the  Speaker's 
casting  vote. 

The  same  animosity  against  an  honorable  profession 
burst  forth  at  a  meeting  of  the  Council  of  Safety  in  the 
autumn  of  1659,  when  a  republican  officer  exclaimed 
with  indecorous  warmth,  "  It  is  not  well  that  at  such  a 
time  as  this  so  great  a  charge  as  the  Great  Seal  should 
be  entrusted  to  a  lawyer.  More  seemly  were  it  that  an 
office  of  such  power  and  profit  should  be  given  to  those 
who  have  encountered  the  wars  and  adventured  their 
lives  for  the  service  of  the  commonwealth  than  to  such 
as  skulk  from  dangers  and  covet  fees."  Promptly,  and 
with  proper  spirit,  Lord  Keeper  Whitelock  answered, 
"The  gentleman  who  so  much  disparages  lawyers  would 
do  well  to  call  in  mind  the  services  performed  by  Ireton, 
Jones,  Reynolds,  and  others  of  the  profession  during  the 
war.  As  for  myself  I  have  been  exposed  to  such  perils 
in  the  service  of  the  state,  particularly  in  my  embassy  to 


63  PLEASANTRIES    OF    ENGLISH 

Sweden,  as  would  appalled  this  much-speaking  colonel, 
1  desire  therefore,  that  such  reproachful  language  may 
be  forborne." 

Although  the  loyalists  were  less  hostile  to  the  legal 
profession,  they  resembled  the  puritans  in  thinking  that 
soldiers  were  qualified  to  fill  judicial  offices.  While 
Charles  II.  was  making  terms  for  his  restoration,  Sir 
John  Grenville  was  said  to  have  offered  Monk  one 
hundred  thousand  pounds  per  annum  for  ever,  the  office 
of  Constable  of  England,  the  right  of  nominating  to 
divers  high  offices  under  the  crown,  and  the  custody  of 
the  Great  Seal.  It  is  doubtful  whether  this  offer  was 
actually  made,  but  the  arrangement  would  at  the  time 
of  the  rumor  have  created  no  dissatisfaction  amongst  the 
king's  friends,  with  the  exception  of  Hyde  and  his  per- 
sonal adherents. 

Had  Monk  presided  in  the  Court  of  Chancery  he  would 
most  probably  have  acquitted  himself  as  well  as  Williams 
or  Shaftesbury,  and  at  the  present  date  would  endure 
comparison  with  any  West  Indian  governor  who  has 
been  required  alternately  to  sit  in  a  court  of  justice,  and 
to  command  the  troops  of  his  island. 

The  story  goes  that  a  general  officer  of  the  army,  on 
being  appointed  a  governor  of  a  West  Indian  island  ad- 
dressed Lord  Mansfield  in  a  voice  of  great  concern, 
"  What  am  I  to  do,  my  Lord  ?  The  governor  is  com- 
mander-in-chief of  the  troops,  and  must  he  preside  in  the 
Local  Court  of  Chancery?  I  can  command  soldiers,  but 
I  know  nothing  of  law."  "Tut,  man,  decide  promptly, 
but  never  give  any  reasons  for  your  decisions.  Your 
decisions  may  be  right,  but  your  reasons  are  sure  to  be 
wrong."  Acting  on  this  rule,  the  military  Chancellor 
pushed  on  well  enough  ;  but  in  an  evil  hour,  forgetting 
the  precept,  he  gave  his  first  good  decision,  and  it  was 
immediately  appealed  against.     Recounting  the  story  to 


COURTS    AND     LAWYERS.  69 

his  grandson,  Lord  Mansfield  said,  "  I  was  two  or  three 
year*  afterwards  sitting  at  the  Cockpit  on  Plantation 
Appeals,  when  there  was  one  called  from  my  friend  and 
pupil  the  general,  which  the  losing  party  had  been  in- 
duced to  bring  on  account  of  the  ludicrously  absurd 
reasons  given  for  the  judgBient,  which,  indeed,  were  so 
absurd  that  he  incurred  some  suspicion  of  corruption, 
and  there  was  a  clamor  for  his  recall.  Upon  examining 
it,  I  found  that  the  judgment  itself  was  perfectly  sound 
and  correct.  Regretting  that  my  advice  had  been  for- 
gotten, I  was  told  that  the  general  acquiring  reputation 
by  following  it,  began  to  suppose  himself  a  great  lawyer, 
and  that  this  case  brought  before  us  was  the  first  in  which 
he  had  given  his  reasons,  and  was  the  first  appealed 
against. 


CHAPTER     XII. 

JOHN  SOMERS,  the  father  of  Lord  Chancellor 
Somers,  deserves  mention  amongst  lawyers  of  mili- 
tary prowess  and  renown.  A  wealthy  man  and  a  per- 
son of  considerable  local  influence,  he  was  in  a  position  to 
aid  the  party  that  possessed  his  respect  and  good  wishes. 
As  the  most  successful  attorney  in  Worcestershire,  and 
proprietor  of  a  landed  estate  that  had  descended  to  him 
from  his  ancestors,  he  ranked  above  the  crowd  of  provin- 
cial lawyers.  He  was  also  a  gentleman  of  fair  descent. 
Though  writers  in  political  journals  were  accustomed  to 
vilify  Lord  Somers  for  having  "sprung  from  the  dregs 
of  the  people,"  the  Chancellor's  family  had  for  genera- 
tions held  place  amongst  the  chief  gentry  of  their  county. 
Queen  Elizabeth  honored  them  by  sleeping  at  •*  The 
Whiteladies  " — a  house  close  to  Worcester,  and  standing 


70  PLEASANTRIES    OF    ENGLISH 

upon  an  estate  granted  to  them  at  the  Reformation  ;  and 
a  noble  self-dependence  had  lontj  characterized  the 
bearers  of  their  name  and  blood.  The  "  Somcr  Islands  " 
were  discovered  by  an  Admiral  of  the  Somers  family, 
who  is  memorable  for  maritime  exploits  and  a  courageous 
reply  to  King  James.  "  I  wish  that  as  I  am  the  first,"  said 
this  persecuted  admiral,  "  so  I  may  be  the  last  of  sacri- 
fices in  your  times.  When  from  private  appetite  it  is 
resolved  that  a  creature  shall  be  sacrificed,  it  is  easy  to 
pick  up  sticks  enough  from  any  thicket  whither  it  hath 
strayed  to  make  a  fire  to  offer  it  with." 

In  the  civil  contest,  Worcester  and  the  best  part  of 
Worcestershire  sided  with  the  crown  ;  but  John  Somers, 
attorney-at-law  and  esquire,  of  "  The  Whiteladies,"  Wor- 
cester, and  of  Stoke-Severn,  raised  a  troop  of  horse  for 
the  Parliament,  and  as  Captain  of  the  said  troop,  was 
one  of  Cromwell's  army.  For  a  while  he  was  quartered 
at  Upton,  near  his  estate  at  Stoke-Severn,  much  to  the 
annoyance  of  the  loyal  clergy  and  proprietors  of  the  dis- 
trict. Not  content  with  arming  in  behalf  of  the  rebels., 
he  used  to  walk  and  ride  about  the  neighborhood  in  his 
martial  dress,  and  every  Sunday  he  had  the  audacity  to 
wear  his  uniform  in  Stoke-Severn  church  during  divine 
service.  The  rector  was  an  ardent  Royalist ;  and  in  a 
series  of  sermons  on  Divine  Right  and  Non-Resistance, 
he  inveighed  against  those  who  dared  to  rebel  against 
their  anointed  rulers.  The  parishioners,  during  the 
delivery  of  these  tirades  against  their  squire,  alternately 
watched  the  preacher  and  the  offender,  enjoying  the 
parson's  violence,  and  wondering  how  long  Captain 
Somers  would  patiently  endure  the  abuse.  As  a  lawyer, 
John  Somers  was  reluctant  to  use  violence  ;  and  he  sent 
a  friendly  message  to  the  clergyman  requesting  him  to 
adopt  a  less  irritating  tone  in  the  pulpit.  The  message 
only  rendered   the   rector  more  furious  in  his  denuncia- 


COURTS    AND    LAWYERS.  71 

tions  of  rebellion.  Again  and  again  Captain  Somers  re- 
newed his  entreaties  that  he  should  not  be  thus  insulted 
in  his  own  parish  church.  Each  succeeding  Sunday  found 
the  preacher  more  angry  and  abusive.  There  was  need 
for  bolder  action,  and  at  length  the  volunteer  trooper  hit 
on  a  novel  method  of  silencing  a  clerical  orator.  Selecting 
a  moment  when  "  the  enemy  "  was  in  full  action,  he 
drew  a  pistol  from  his  pocket,  aimed  deliberately  at  the 
foe,  and  then,  raising  his  hand  as  he  pulled  the  trigger, 
sent  a  bullet  into  the  sounding-board  over  the  parson's 
head.  The  commotion  that  ensued  was  not  less  comical 
than  lively.  The  younger  women  screamed  and  went  off 
into  hysterics;  the  men  sprung  to  their  feet,  and  on  find- 
ing that  no  harm  was  done,  burst  into  laughter.  Abuzz, 
a  clattering  of  feet  on  the  pavement — and  the  congrega- 
tion left  the  church  without  a  benediction.  Captain 
Somers  walked  quietly  to  his  house,  after  explaining  to 
his  adversary  that  every  repetition  of  his  insolence  would 
produce  a  similar  interruption,  and  that  on  each  ensuing 
occasion  for  pistol  practice  the  ball  would  strike  a  lower 
point.  With  perfect  coolness  the  warlike  attorney  inti- 
mated his  readiness  in  course  of  time  to  send  a  lump  of 
lead  into  his  opponent's  head,  instead  of  the  sounding- 
board  above  it.  Finding  that  he  could  not  keep  all  the 
argument  to  himself,  the  worthy  rector  henceforth 
avoided  political  topics  whenever  the  captain  formed 
part  of  his  congregation.  After  the  Restoration,  John 
Somers  obtained  a  special  pardon  under  the  Great  Seal, 
for  any  excesses  of  which  he  had  been  guilty  in  "  the 
late  troubles,"  by  which  gentle  term  the  second  Charles's 
subjects  were  wont  to  allude  to  the  civil  war  and  the 
period  of  their  sovereign's  exile. 

Though  Oliver  St.  John  and  Hyde  can  scarcely  be 
named  amongst  the  fighting  lawyers  of  the  seventeenth 
century,  they  rendered  to  their  respective  parties  services 


72 


PLEASANTRIES     OF    ENGLISH 


that  entitle  them  to  military  honors.  Before  he  deter- 
mined to  confine  his  exertions  for  the  "  good  cause"  to 
unwarlike  fields,  St.  John  busied  himself  as  a  recruiting- 
sergeant  and  drill-master.  On  the  other  hand,  Hyde's 
devotion  to  his  royal  masters  familiarized  him  with  the 
perils  and  excitements  of  a  soldier's  existence. 

After  withdrawing  from  the  University  of  Oxford, 
where  he  was  an  undergraduate  of  Oriel  until  he  migrated 
to  Pembroke,  William  Scroggs  commanded  a  troop  o:' 
horse,  and  fought  bravely  for  the  Martyr  King.  On  the 
termination  of  the  civil  war  he  became  a  student  of 
Gray's  Inn,  and  at  the  Restoration  he  was  ready  to  serve 
the  Stuarts  in  his  gown  as  fearlessly  as  in  past  times  he 
had  served  them  in  a  cuirass.  Witty  as  Shaftesbury, 
comely  as  Jeffreys,  and  dissolute  as  Rochester,  he  rose  to 
be  that  odious  Chief  Justice  Scroggs  whose  name,  uttered 
after  his  death  by  angry  nurses,  has  roused  the  terror  of 
generations  of  English  children. 

Another  great  lawyer  of  the  same  century,  whose 
breast  at  one  time  burned  with  martial  ardor,  was  Chief 
Justice  Hale,  who  in  his  wild  and  dissipated  youth  con- 
ceived a  desire  to  fight  under  the  Prince  of  Orange  in 
the  Low  Counties.  Had  young  Hale  resisted  his  affec- 
tionate advisers  to  the  last,  and  taken  service  under  the 
prince,  it  is  probable  that  Amy  Duny  and  Rose  Cul- 
lender would  not  have  been  executed  for  whichcraft  at 
Bury  St.  Edmunds  in  1665. 

As  the  lawyers  displayed  a  strong  sympathy  with  re- 
publican— or  rather,  constitutional — sentiments  under 
Charles  I.,  it  is  no  matter  for  wonder  that  they  con- 
tinued to  manifest  the  same  sympathy  under  Cromwell, 
when  fees  and  preferment  rewarded  the  supporters  ot 
popular  government.  At  the  Restoration  Charles  H. 
found  his  most  eminent  lawyers  by  no  means  in  a  tnood 
to  echo  the  opinions  of  the  Church  with  regard  to  the 


COURTS    AND     LAWYERS.  73 

kingly  office.  For  a  time,  indeed,  there  was  a  dearth  of 
pliant  perverters  of  justice  on  the  bench  and  in  the  inns, 
until  the  successes  of  Heneage  Finch  and  Francis  North 
to  a  certain  extent  demoralized  the  bar. 

But  notwithstanding  all  that  has  been  said  about  the 
scarcity  of  royalist  lawyers  during  the  civil  war  and  the 
commonwealth,  it  may  not  be  supposed  that  under 
Oliver's  ascendancy  there  were  no  barristers  eminent  in 
their  profession,  and  at  the  same  time  devoted  to  the 
House  of  Stuart.  The  Inns  of  Court  contained  many 
gentlemen  who  used  to  nibble  the  toast  floating  at  the 
top  of  the  ale-cup  or  wine-cup,  in  order  that  they  might 
have  an  excuse  for  muttering,  as  they  drank,  "  God  send 
this  cr?/;//(^  «'<;•//  down."  The  attorneys  who  conducted 
the  affairs  of  the  cavalier  gentry  used  to  testify  their 
loyalty  in  various  quaint  and  pleasant  ways.  In  the 
parchment  of  these  old  Caroline  practitioners  the  anti- 
cjuary  sometimes  comes  upon  a  sign  of  their  romantic 
attachment  to  the  banished  house.  During  the  protec- 
torate, they  were  compelled  to  engross  Cromwell's  hatred 
Christian  name;  but  the  most  loyal  of  them  forbore  to 
write  Oliver  with  a  capital  O.  Of  the  royalist  bar  Sir 
Geoffrey  Palmer,'  on  whose  skirts  Francis  North  fixed 
his  tenacious  grasp,  may  be  regarded  as  a  type. 

On  the  other  hand,  the  servile  Address  of  the  Barris- 
ters and  Students  of  Lincoln's  Inn  has  been  too  hastily 

'  In  ihe  Exanien,  Roger  North  says  of  this  worthy  gentleman  ; — "  After 
the  happy  restoration  of  King  Charles  II.,  Sir  Geoffrey  Palmer  was  the  first 
Attorney  General,  and  held  the  place  to  the  time  of  his  death.  He  was  a 
man  of  great  ahility  in'  the  law,  and  in  that  profession  is  what  a  lawyer 
should  be — that  is,  master  of,  and  not  superior  to,  so  as  to  despise  the  learn- 
ing of  his  own  profession.  But  yet  his  wisdom  and  generosity  were  incom- 
parable. During  all  the  troubles  of  the  times,  he  lived  quiet  in  the  Temple, 
a  professed  and  known  cavalier  ;  and  no  temptation  of  fear  or  profit  ever 
sho.'ik  his  principle.  He  lived  then  in  great  business  of  conveyancing,  r.nd 
liad  no  clerks  but  such  as  were  strict  cavaliers.  One,  I  have  heard,  was  so 
rigid  that  he  could  never  be  brought  to  write  Oliver  with  a  great  O.  And 
it  was  said  that  the  attorney  chose  to  purchase  a  manor  of  Charleton,  be- 
cause hii  master's  name  sounded  in  tiie  style  of  it." 


74  PLEASANTRIES    OF    ENGLISH 

accepted  by  many  writers  as  proof  that  the  legal  pro- 
fession in  their  conduct  to  the  last  two  of  our  Stuart 
kings,  altogether  sacrificed  that  reputation  for  inde- 
pendence and  courage,  which  they  have  maintained  at 
periods  of  great  trial.  It  has  been  observed  with  an  ap- 
pearance of  justice  that,  "  during  the  reign  of  Charles  II. 
the  barristers  became  as  much  attached  to  the  crown  as 
they  had  formerly  been  to  the  commonwealth,"  This  is 
unfair.  Amongst  the  needy  and  ambitious  members  of 
the  Inns  of  Court  the  royal  brothers  found  obedient 
slaves  ;  and  in  societies  in  a  great  degree  composed  of 
young  men  of  fashion,  with  connexions  at  court,  there 
was  of  course  a  strong  body  of  barristers  always  ready  to 
extol  the  crown,  and  entertain  the  members  of  the  royal 
house  with  costly  revels.  The  same  was  the  case  under 
Charles  I.  But  the  conduct  of  the  young  cavaliers  and 
idlers  of  the  inns  must  not  make  us  unjust  to  the  more 
staid  and  learned  practitioners  of  the  law.  During  the 
twenty  years  preceding  and  the  five-and-twenty  years 
following  the  commonwealth,  the  Inns  of  Court  re- 
sounded with  professions  of  loyalty  ;  but  in  those  same 
schools  were  reared  the  men  who  brought  Charles  I.  to 
the  scaffold,  and  also  the  men  who  drove  his  son  from 
the  country.  Such  men  as  Jeffreys,  Scroggs,  and  North 
were  loathed  by  the  advocates  over  whom  they  presided  ; 
and  though  the  crown  from  1660  to  1688  unquestionably 
exercised  a  pernicious  influence  on  the  tone  and  morality 
of  the  bar,  it  was  powerless  to  corrupt  the  more  noble 
and  thoughtful  of  the  profession.  Men  educated  to  ex- 
plain the  laws  of  the  land  were  ready  to  recognize  the 
rights  of  the  crown  ;  but  it  was  impossible  for  such  men, 
living  under  the  Stuarts,  not  to  feel  acutely  the  wrongs 
of  the  subject.  Old  Maynard's  ready  reply  to  William 
of  Orange  was  more  than  a  compliment ;  it  spoke  the 
conviction  of  the  legal  mind.     And  the  Act  of  Settle- 


COURTS    AND    LAWYERS.  i; 

ment,  which  placed  the  judges  above  the  caprice  of  the 
crown,  is  a  memorial  of  the  precautions  taken  by  our 
lawyers  against  a  repetition  of  evils  which,  according  to 
some  writers,  met  their  approval. 

Of  the  lawyers  who  welcomed  William  of  Orange, 
sword  in  hand,  one  of  the  most  notable  is  William  Cow- 
per.  The  future  Lord  Chancellor  was  then  a  young 
barrister  of  the  Home  Circuit.  He  had  not  been  called 
many  months,  and  before  his  call  he  had  married  the 
fair  Judith  Booth,  whose  virtue  and  beauty  reclaimed 
him  from  profligate  habits,  but  not  before  his  notorious 
dissipations  had  laid  the  foundation  for  calumnies  which 
blackened  his  reputation,  and  disturbed  his  peace  in 
after  years. 

On  hearing  that  the  prince  was  at  Torbay,  William 
Cowper  and  his  brother  Spencer  (of  whose  adventures 
mention  will  be  made  hereafter),  together  with  twenty- 
six  other  young  gentlemen,  armed  themselves  and  rode 
in  a  body  towards  Oxford.  In  1826,  Spencer  Cowper, 
recalling  this  expedition,  gave  his  niece.  Lady  Sarah, 
materials  for  the  following  account  of  her  father's  arrival 
at  the  university: — "  When  they  came  near  Oxford  they 
found  the  city  had  a  garrison,  and  heard  the  king's  army, 
said  to  be  about  20,000  men,  was  encamped  just  by,  but 
could  not  learn  whether  those  at  Oxford  were  of  the 
king's  or  prince's  party.  Coming  upon  the  bridge,  they 
found  one  of  the  arches  broken  down,  and  an  officer  with 
three  files  of  musketeers  came  up  to  them,  presented 
their  muskets  and  asked  who  they  were  for.  Twenty- 
seven  of  the  company  did  not  care  to  return  an  answer, 
fearing  lead  in  their  guts  if  these  soldiers  were  of  the 
king's  side:  and  the  gentlemen  had  only  pistols,  so  must 
have  engaged  with  great  disadvantage,  but  my  father 
seemed  unconcerned,  and  spurring  his  horse  forward, 
flung    up  his    hat  and   cried,  'The  Prince  of  Orange!' 


76  PLEASANTRIES    OF    ENGLISH 

which  was  answered  by  the  soldiers  with  a  shout,  and 
they  laid  phinks  for  them  to  enter  the  town,  and  they 
were  conducted  to  Lord  Lovelace,  who  kept  it  against 
the  king.  They  stayed  there  three  days,  and  then  went 
on  to  meet  the  Prince  of  Orange,  and  came  into  London 
with  him." 

Instead  of  the  hardships  of  war,  the  volunteers  took 
part  in  the  rejoicings  that  followed  the  prince's  bloodless 
victory ;  and  it  was  not  long  before  William  Cowper 
found  an  abundance  of  work,  more  profitable,  if  not 
more  pleasant,  than  volunteer-soldiering. 

The  following  story  concerning  Chief  Justice  Holt 
appeared  in  the  Examiner,  and  has  been  reprinted  in 
many  books  of  ana.  "  A  party  of  the  guards  was  or- 
dered from  Whitehall  to  put  down  a  dangerous  riot 
which  had  arisen  in  Holborn,  from,  the  practice  of  kid- 
napping, then  carried  to  a  great  extent;  and  at  the 
same  time  an  officer  was  despatched  to  inform  the  Chief 
Justice  of  what  was  doing,  and  to  desire  that  he  would 
send  some  of  his  people  to  attend  and  countenance  the 
soldiers.  "  Suppose,  sir,"  said  Holt — "  let  me  suppose 
the  populace  should  not  disperse  on  your  appearance,  or 
at  your  command?"  "Our  orders  are  then  to  fire  upon 
them."  "  Then  mark,  sir,  what  I  say  :  if  there  should 
be  a  man  killed  in  consequence  of  such  orders,  and  you 
are  tried  before  me  for  murder,  I  will  take  care  that  you 
and  every  soldier  of  your  party  shall  be  hanged.  Re- 
turn to  those  who  sent  you,  and  tell  them  that  no  officer 
of  mine  shall  accompany  soldiers  ;  the  laws  of  this  king- 
dom are  not  to  be  executed  by  the  sword.  This  affair 
belongs  to  civil  power,  and  soldiers  have  nothing  to  do 
here."  Then  ordering  his  tipstaves  and  some  constables 
to  accompany  him,  he  hastened  to  the  scene  of  tumult, 
and  the  populace,  on  his  assurance  that  justice  should  be 
done  on  the  objects  of  their  indignation,  dispersed  in  a 


COURTS    AND     LAWYERS.  77 

peaceable  manner."  This  story  is  very  ridiculous,  but  it 
points  to  an  interesting  and  significant  event.  Of  course, 
ii  is  incredable  that  Holt  said  "  the  laws  of  this  king- 
dom are/not  to  be  executed  by  the  sword."  He  was  too 
r.Gund  a  constitutional  lawyer  to  hold  that  military 
iorce  could  not  be  lawfully  employed  in  quelling  civil 
insurrection.  The  interesting  fact  is  this: — On  the  oc- 
casion of  a  riot  in  Holborn,  Holt  was  formally  required, 
as  the  supreme  conservator  of  the  king's  peace,  to  aid 
the  military  ;  and  instead  of  converting  a  street-row  into 
a  massacre,  he  prevailed  on  the  mob  to  disperse  without 
shedding  a  single  drop  of  blood.  Declining  to  co-operate 
with  soldiers  on  an  unarmed  multitude,  he  discharged 
the  ancient  function  of  his  office  with  words  instead  of 
sabres — with  grave  counsel  instead  of  cruel  violence. 
Under  similar  circumstances  Chief  Justice  Odo  would 
have  clad  himself  in  mail,  and  crushed  the  rabble  be- 
neath the  feet  of  his  war-horse.  At  such  a  summons 
George  Jeffreys,  having  fortified  himself  with  a  magnum 
of  claret  and  a-pint  of  strong  \\ater,  would  have  accom- 
panied the  king's  guards,  and  with  noisy  oaths  would 
have  bade  them  give  the  rascals  a  taste  of  cold  steel. 
Wearing  his  judicial  robes,  and  sustained  by  the  majesty 
of  the  law,  William  HI.'s  Chief  Justice  preserved  the 
peace  without  sacrificing  life. 


CHAPTER     XIII. 

URING  the  Gordon  Riots,  in  the  year  1780,  some 
of  our  lawyers  were  compelled  to  fight — and  fly. 
There  are  so  many  reasons  why  insurgents  should  con- 
ceive a  strong  dislike  for  the  law  and  its  professors;  and 
there  are  so  many  considerations  rendering  lawvers  hate- 


78  PLEASANTRIES    OF    ENGLISH 

ful  to  the  classes  which  supply  the  raw  material  of  mobs, 
that  the  student  feels  no  surprise  when,  on  the  outbreak 
of  a  riot,  he  sees  the  violence  of  the  multitude  directed 
against  the  entire  body  or  particular  members  of  the 
legal  brotherhood.  As  he  sneaked  out  of  Bristol,  beyond 
the  reach  of  the  infuriated  rabble  who  yelled  for  liin 
blood.  Sir  Charles  Wetherell  was  but  the  last  of  a  lonc; 
line  of  lawyers  who  had  been  compelled  to  retreat,  with 
more  haste  than  dignity,  before  the  madness  of  popular 
fury.  Of  one  great  jurist  and  advocate,  more  famous 
for  legal  knowledge  than  personal  delicacy,  who  during 
the  Reform  agitation  of  '32  saved  his  neck  by  timely 
use  of  his  feet,  the  story  ran  that  he  escaped  from  his 
pursuers  under  the  disguise  of  a  clean  shirt. 

When  Lord  George  Gordon's  indiscreet  followers  rose 
for  the  defense  of  our  Protestant  religion,  they  resolved 
to  sweep  away  the  lawyers,  whilst  they  applied  the 
besom  of  destruction  to  Romish  priests.  With  this  laud- 
able intention  they  laid  siege  to  the  Temple,  whither 
the  barristers  had  congregated  in  strong  force.  Not  only 
the  barristers  occupying  chambers  in  the  Temple,  but 
non-resident  members  of  both  societies  were  assembled 
on  King's  Bench  Walk,  in  the  gardens,  and  in  the 
avenues  leading  to  the  two  principal  gates.  House- 
holders in  Lion  Square  and  Ormond  Street,  in  Bedford 
Row  and  Great  Russell  Street,  left  their  windows  to  the 
rage  of  the  rioters,  and  brought  their  wives,  daughters, 
and  plate-chests  within  the  protection  of  their  college 
walls. 

In  those  days  Lord  Eldon  was  still  a  young  man,  living 
in  Carey  Street,'  in  a  house  that  contained  his  business 
chambers  as  well  as  Mrs.  Scott's  drawing-room.     This 

'  His  first  London  residence  was  in  Cursitor  Street,  his  habitatioa  there 
being  a  little  house  oppo:.ite  Sloman's  sponging-house.  "  Sloman's" — the 
sponging-house  described  in  Mr.  Disraeli's  "  Henrietta  Temple"  and  .Mr. 
Thackeray's  "Vanity  Fair" — was  pulled  down  some  eighteen  months  since. 


COURTS    AND     LAWYERS.  79 

was  the  period  during  which  he  in  his  old  age  believed 
himself  to  have  endured  cruel  and  humiliating  poverty — • 
the  period  when  he  used  to  run  into  Clare  Market  and 
buy  sixpennyworths  of  sprats  for  his  wife's  suppers. 
There  is  no  need  to  say  that  if  John  Scott  ever  bought 
sprats,  as  he  described  in  his  later  days,  his  conduct  was 
not  justified  by  narrow  means  ;  and  that,  instead  of  win- 
ning success  after  a  hard  struggle  against  adverse  for- 
tune, he  commenced  the  practice  of  his  profession  with 
more  than  sufficient  pecuniary  means,  and  under  advan- 
tageous circumstances.  Instead  of  waiting  through  long 
years  for  an  income,  his  fee-book  told  a  flattering  tale 
from  the  date  of  his  first  circuit.  His  friends  in  Northum- 
berland and  Durham  sent  him  briefs  as  soon  as  he  was 
called  in  February,  1776;  in  the  following  year  he  re- 
ceived two  hundred  pounds  from  one  client ;  and  at  the 
time  of  his  altogether  imaginary  distress,  he  was  the 
luckiest  member  oi  the  junior  bar.  In  1780,  the  year 
when  his  argument  in  Akroyd  v.  SmitJison  made  him 
famous,  and  placed  him  in  possession  of  a  highly  lucra- 
tive practice,  he  was  well  known  in  Chancery,  to  which 
court  he  already  thought  of  confining  himself;  in  the 
King's  Bench,  where  he  deemed  himself  ill-treated  by 
Lord  Mansfield,  who  was  accused  of  showing  favor  to 
Westminster  Oxford  men  ;  and  on  the  Northern  circuit, 
where  in  that  same  year  he  was  appointed  Solicitor 
General  of  the  Grand  Court  established  for  the  trial  of 
barristers  charged  with  mock  offenses. 

When  the  Gordon  rioters  filled  London  with  alarm, 
no  member  of  the  junior  bar  was  more  prosperous  and 
popular  than  handsome  Jack  Scott  ;  and  as  he  walked 
from  his  house  in  Carey  Street  to  the  Temple,  with  his 
wife^on  his  arm,  he  returned  the  greetings  of  barristers 
who,  besides  liking  him  for  a  good  fellow,  thought  it 
prudent  to  be  on  good  terms  with  a  man  sure  to  achieve 


8o  PLEASANTRIES    OF    ENGLISH 

eminence.  Dilatory  in  his  early  as  well  as  his  later  years, 
Scott  left  his  house  that  morning  half  an  hour  too  late. 
Already  it  was  known  to  the  mob  that  the  Templars 
were  assembling  in  their  college  ;  and  a  cry  of  "  The 
Temple — Kill  the  lawyers!"  had  been  raised  in  White- 
friars  and  Essex  Street.  Before  they  reached  the  Middle 
Temple  gate,  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Scott  were  assaulted  more 
than  once.  The  man  who  won  Bessie  Surtees  from  a 
host  of  rivals,  and  carried  her  away  against  the  will  of 
her  parents  and  the  wishes  of  his  own  father,  was  able  to 
protect  her  from  serious  violence.  But  before  the  beauti- 
ful creature  was  safe  within  the  Temple,  her  dress  was 
torn,  and  when  at  length  she  stood  in  the  center  of  a 
crowd  of  excited  and  admiring  barristers,  her  head  was 
bare,  and  her  ringlets  fell  loose  upon  her  shoulders. 

Long  after  the  subjugation  of  the  rioters,  and  when 
Lord  George  Gordon's  madness  had  come  to  be  regarded 
as  a  jest  rather  than  an  outrage,  the  Templars  found 
pleasure  in  telling  how  bravely  they  fought,  or  rather 
how  bravely  they  would  have  fought,  if  they  had  been 
allowed  to  have  their  own  way.  Of  the  good  stories  con- 
cerning their  valor,  many  of  them  are  too  good  to  be 
true,  and  some  too  true  to  be  good. 

Judge  Burrough  used  to  tell  that,  when  the  Gordon 
rioters  besieged  the  Temple,  he  and  a  strong  body  of 
barristers,  headed  by  a  sergeant  of  the  guards,  were 
stationed  in  the  Inner  Temple  Lane  ;  and  that,  having 
complete  confidence  in  the  strength  of  their  massive 
gate,  they  spoke  bravely  of  their  desire  to  be  fighting  on 
the  other  side.  At  length  the  gate  was  forced.  The 
lawyers  fell  into  confusion,  and  were  about  to  beat  a 
retreat,  when  the  sergeant,  a  man  of  infinite  humor, 
cried  out  in  a  magnificent  voice,  "  Take  care  no  gentle- 
man fires  from  behind."  The  words  struck  awe  into  the 
hearts   of  the   assailants,   and    caused  the  barristers    to 


COURTS    AND     LAWYERS.  8; 

Inugh.  The  mob,  who  had  expected  neither  laughter 
nor  armed  resistance,  took  to  flight,  telling  all  whom 
they  met  that  the  bloody-minded  lawyers  were  armed  to 
the  teeth,  and  enjoying  themselves.  The  Temple  was 
saved. 

The  most  exquisitely  comical  version  of  the  incident 
to  which  Judge  Burrough's  narrative  points,  came  from 
Lord  Erskine's  lips  in  November,  1819;  when  in  the 
House  of  Lords,  speaking  upon  Lord  Lansdowne's  mo- 
tion for  an  inquiry  into  the  state  of  the  country,  he  con- 
demned the  conduct  of  the  yeomanry  at  the  "  Manches- 
ter Massacre."  "  By  an  ordinary  display  of  spirit  and 
resolution,"  observed  the  brilliant  egotist  to  his  brother 
peers,  who  were  so  impressed  by  his  complacent  volu- 
bility and  good-humored  self-esteem,  that  they  were  for 
the  moment  ready  to  take  him  at  his  own  valuation, 
"  insurrection  may  be  repressed  without  violating  the 
law  or  the  constitution.  \\\  the  riots  of  17S0,  when  the 
mob  were  preparing  to  attack  the  house  of  Lord  Mans- 
field, I  offered  to  defend  it  with  a  small  military  force; 
but  this  offer  was  unluckily  rejected  ;  and  afterwards, 
being  in  the  Temple  when  the  rioters  were  preparing  to 
force  the  gate,  and  had  fired  several  times,  I  went  to  the 
gate,  opened  it,  and  showed  them  a  field-piece  which  I 
was  prepared  to  discharge  in  case  the  attack  was  per- 
sisted ill.  They  were  daunted,  fell  back,  and  dispersed." 
This  is  a  good  specimen  of  the  vain-glorious  statements 
which  Erskine  frequently  made  under  the  influence  of 
egotism,  high  spirits,  and  lawless  fancy.  Walter  Scott 
had  some  reason  for  his  sweeping  judgment — "Tom 
Lrskine  was  positively  mad  !" 

Lord    Mansfield    had    reason    to    think    the    Gordon 

rioters  less  manageable  than  Lord  Erskine,  after  a  lapse 

ot  almost  forty  years,  supposed  them  to  have  been.     An 

enlightened  champion  of  religious  liberty,  who  in  parlia- 

I.— 6 


82  PLEASANTRIES    OF    ENGLISH 

nicnt  raised  his  voice  for  the  Catholics,  and  even  on  the 
bench  shielded  an  unfortunate  member  of  the  Roman 
Church  from  the  injustice  of  the  law,  this  great  Chief 
Justice  was  an  object  of  especial  abhorrence  to  the  miser- 
able fanatics  who  styled  themselves  "The  General  I'ro- 
testant  Association."  On  Friday,  June  2,  when  the  sixty 
thousand  rioters,  headed  by  a  half-witted  nobleman, 
marched  from  St.  George's  Fields,  over  London  Bridge, 
and  through  the  City  to  Westminster,  Lord  Mansfield 
was  one  of  the  peers  who  were  subjected  to  brutal  in- 
sult on  their  way  to  the  House  of  Parliament.  As  his 
carriage  passeci  down  Parliament  Street  he  was  received 
with  yells,  and  the  windows  of  the  coach  were  broken 
with  stones.  Before  the  servants  of  the  House  of  Lords 
succeeded  in  rescuing  him  from  the  rabble,  he  had  been 
subjected  to  such  personal  violence  that  on  taking  liis 
seat  on  the  woolsack,  as  Lord  Thurlow's  substitute,  he 
showed  marks  of  indignity  in  his  torn  robes  and  dis- 
ordered wig.  When  the  day  of  national  disgrace  had 
closed,  he  drove  from  Westminster  to  his  house  without 
again  encountering  the  defenders  of  our  reformed  re- 
ligion. 

But  the  mob  resolved  to  wreak  their  vengeance  upon 
him  in  a  more  signal  manner.  Hatred  of  the  judge  who 
w'as  unanimously  allowed  to  be  the  most  accomplished 
and  learned  lawyer  of  his  time,  was  one  of  the  motives 
that  inspired  them  to  besiege  the  Temple,  in  the  hope 
of  destroying  the  whole  accursed  tribe  of  which  he  was  a 
conspicuous  chief.  To  sack  the  Temple  was  beyond 
their  power,  but  they  were  able  to  burn  the  Chief 
Justice's  house  in  the  north-east  corner  of  Bloomsbury 
Square.  On  the  night  of  June  6,  when  the  riot  had  been 
permitted  to  rage  for  four  or  five  days,  a  dense  mass  f»{ 
insurgents  surrounded  the  mansion,  and  speedily  accom- 
plished the  work  of  destruction.     The  attack  had  been 


I 


COURTS    AND     LAWYERS.  83 

anticipated,  but  no  adequate  means  had  been  taken  for 
the  Chief  Justice's  protect. on.  Magistrates,  indeed,  had 
wished  to  surround  the  house  with  foot-guards;  but 
fearing  that  the  presence  of  the  soldiers  would  increase 
rather  than  lessen  the  danger.  Lord  Mansfield  requested 
tliat  they  should  be  stationed  in  the  Church  of  St. 
George's,  Blooinsbury,  away  from  the  observation  of 
stragglers.  It  was  thought  that  in  case  of  an  attack  the 
detachment  could  leave  their  place  of  concealment,  and 
drive  the  mob  from  the  square.  When  the  rioters,  how- 
over,  entered  the  square,  their  number  was  so  great  that 
tl-'C  soldiers  made  no  attempt  to  disperse  them.  After 
t';e  1-jadcrs  of  the  rout  struck  the  front  door  with  ham- 
mers and  iron  bars,  the  earl  and  the  countess  escaped  by 
a  postern  gate  from  the  premises,  which  were  speedily  in 
tiie  hands  of  the  rabble.  The  assailants  were  enthusiasts 
■ — not  thieves.  Destruction  was  ordered  ;  robbery  was 
dciiounced.  "  Death  to  Thieves  !"  was  the  cry.  Of  course 
the  patriots  were  permitted  to  eat  the  contents  of  their 
enemy's  larder  and  to  drain  his  wine  ;  but  apart  from 
victuals  and  drink  they  took  away  nothing  of  the  judge's 
property.  They  broke  mirrors,  slit  pictures  down  and 
across,  and  hurled  costly  furniture  into  the  bonfires 
which  made  the  gloomy  square  bright  as  daylight.  One 
scoundrel  was  seen  throwing  a  quantity  of  silver  plate 
and  gold  coin  into  the  flames,  and  as  the  precious  metals 
left  his  hands,  he  thanked  God  that  they  would  not  be 
spent  on  masses.  "When  the  house  had  been  thoroughly 
gutted  and  sacked  it  was  set  on  fire.  The  loss  of  his 
library,  containing  books  given  him  by  Pope  or  annotated 
by  Bolingbroke,  and  manuscripts  by  his  own  hand,  was 
the  part  of  liis  misfortune  which  Lord  Mansfield  felt 
most  acutely. 

Whilit   flames  v/ere  destroying  Lord  Mansfield's  house 
in   Bloomsbury  Square,  Lord  Thurlow  was  expecting  a 


84  PLEASANTRIES    OE    ENGLISH 

visit  from  tl)e  mob  in  Great  Ormond  Street.  A  guard 
of  soldiers  had  been  assigned  for  his  protection  ;  and  in- 
stead of  concealing  them  in  an  adjacent  church,  he  not 
only  received  them  within  his  doors,  but  ostentatiously 
exhibited  them  at  his  windows.  Indeed,  by  cleverly 
marching  and  countermarching  the  redcoats  past  the 
windows  that  looked  into  the  thoroughfare,  he  created 
an  impression  on  beholders  that  he  was  surrounded  by  a 
strong  force.  His  house  was  spared;  and  when  the 
danger  had  passed,  it  was  stated  that  his  good  fortune 
was  due  to  this  military  stratagem.  But  it  is  more  pro- 
bable that  the  rioters  passed  him  over,  because  he  had 
never  offended  their  particular  prejudices. 

Our  great  lawyers  have  never  been  slow  to  extol  their 
own  courage  and  military  prowess.  In  the  garrulous 
reminiscences  of  his  last  years,  when  port  wine  had 
warmed  his  heart  and  relaxed  his  stiffened  joints,  Lord 
Eldon  was  wont  to  astonish  the  old  attorneys  and 
placemen  who  surrounded  his  table  with  stories  of  his 
valiant  conduct  in  repelling  the  Corn  Rioters  v.-ho 
stormed  his  house  in  Bedford  Square.  When  British 
legislators  enacted  the  disastrous  Corn  Bill,  which  pro- 
duced a  rare  harvest  of  woe  and  crime  in  the  followiiig 
generation,  few  public  men  were  more  unpopular  than 
Lord  Eldon.  He  was  not  especiallyaccountable  for  the 
measure;  but  he  was  a  resolute  and  outspoken  leader  oi 
the  party  that  originated  and  passed  it,  and  he  had  ren- 
dered himself  unpopular  by  resisting  a  petition  that 
counsel  should  be  allowed  to  argue  against  the  bill  in 
behalf  of  the  City  of  London. 

On  March  6,  1815,  his  house  was  attacked  at  a  late 
hour  in  the  evening.  The  soldiers  on  duty  at  the  British 
Museum  were  called  to  the  Chancellor's  protection,  arid 
they  entered  the  Bedford  Square  mansion  by  a  back  door, 
just  as  the  rioters  carried  the  front  entrance.     The  mill 


COURTS    AND    LAWYERS.  85 

tary  and  the  foremost  insurgents  met  in  the  hall ;  and 
as  they  exchanged  glances,  Lord  Eldon  exclaimed  to  an 
imaginary  force  in  the  background,  "  Guards  in  the  rear, 
reserve  your  fire."  According  to  the  recollection  of  the 
aged  peer,  the  mob  on  hearing  these  words  fell  back  ; 
whereupon,  availing  himseif  of  their  confusion,  he  sprang 
across  the  threshold,  and  with  his  own  hands  captured 
two  of  the  retiring  enemy.  "  If  you  don't  mind  what 
you  are  about,  lads,"  exclaimed  the  Chancellor,  shaking 
the  prisoners  when  he  had  hauled  them  into  his  house, 
"  }"Ou  will  all  come  to  be  hanged."  "  Perhaps  so,  old 
chap,"  answered  one  of  the  rascals,  with  admirable  cool- 
ness; "but  I  think  it  looks  ncnv  as  if  you  would  be 
hanged  first."  In  order  that  this  menace  might  not  be 
fulfilled,  Lord  Eldon,  together  with  the  women  of  his 
family^  retreated  by  a  back  way  to  the  British  Museum, 
under  the  protection  of  a  strong  military  escort.  Beyond 
tearing  up  iron  rails  and  breaking  windows,  the  mob  did 
little  harm  ;  and  when  the  Duke  of  Wellington,  on  the 
following  day,  called  in  Bedford  Square,  the  Chancellor 
proclaimed  the  success  of  his  stratagem,  and  enjoyed  the 
great  soldier's  courteous  answer — "  I  am  glad,  my  lord, 
that  you  have  taken  to  act  the  general,  only  when  I  have 
left  the  field  ;  for  you.  certainly  would  have  beaten  me  in 
that  career." 

In  his  later  years  Erskine  used  to  recall  his  military 
experiences  with  much  humor  and  some  artistic  eilibel- 
lishments.  Having  served  in  the  navy  as  midshipman 
and  acting  lieutenant,  he  obtained  an  ensign's  commis- 
sion in  the  First  Foot,  and  did  regimental  duty  in  Eng- 
lish garrison  towns  and  at  Minorca.  As  an  ensign  he 
married  the  pretty  girl  to  whom  he  was  a  loving  and 
loyal  husband  ;  and  as  an  ensign  stationed  at  Minorca, 
he  v/as  enthusiastic  in  his  sympathy  for  General  Most}-n, 
when  that  Governor  was  trounced  in  an  action  for  false 


86  PLEASANTRIES    OF    ENGLISH 

imprisonment  and  other  illegal  treatment  brought  against 
him  in  the  Common  Pleas  by  Fabrigas.  Carried  away 
by  his  anger  with  his  jury  who  had  returned  a  verdict 
for  Fabrigas  with  damages  of  three  thousand  pounds, 
the  ensign,  whom  British  juries  in  the  course  of  a  few 
}'ears  raised  to  opulence  and  fame,  actually  wrote  a 
lampoon  on  trial  by  a  jury. 

In  his  old  age  he  said,  "  I  remember  well  the  news 
coming  out  to  Malta  of  the  verdict  in  the  case  of  Fabri- 
gas and  Mostyn.  I  was  then  in  the  garrison,  and  we  all 
took  the  side  of  our  worthy  and  popular  governor,  whom 
we  thought  very  ill  used  ;  and  we  drank  that  day  at  the 
mess  a  hearty  damnation  to  the  jury  who  brought  in  that 
verdict.  Getting  warm  with  indignation  and  wine,  I 
lampooned  the  jury  after  dinner  in  some  extempore 
verses,  little  thinking  that  I  should  ever  have  anything 
to  say  to  a  jury  myself.  I  forget  exactly  how  they  ran, 
but  the  idea  was  that  the  ghost  of  Great  Alfred  came 
from  the  abodes  of  the  blest  to  survey  the  results  of  the 
institutions  he  had  founded  in  life  ;  and  I  supposed  him 
present  at  the  verdict  of  the  jury  against  Governor 
Mostyn.     The  concluding  verses  were  these  : — 

"  The  monarch's  pale  face  was  \\\\\\  Ijluslies  suffused 
To  oljserve  right  and  wrong  by  twelve  villains  confused. 
And  kicking  them  all  'ii  the  heat  of  his  fury, 
Cried  '  Cursed  he  the  day  I  invented  a  jury  !'  " 

In  his  moments  of  proudest  triumph,  Erskine  selected 
for  his  heraldic  device  the  motto  "Trial  by  Jury." 

Tom  Erskine  used  to  wear  b.is  lieutenant's  uniform  in 
London  society,  after  he  had  decided  to  quit  the  army 
and  enter  the  law.  Until  he  had  actually  sold  his  lieu- 
tenant's commission,  the  tmiform  of  the  "  Royals,"  was 
his  ordinary  costume  at  dinner-parties  and  in  theaters. 
During  the  Easter  and  Trinity  terms  of  1775  he  ate  his 
dinners  at  Lincoln's  Inn,  amongst  students  who  beheld 
with  amusement  his  scarlet  recjimentals  under  his  black 


CGUI^TS    AND    LAWYERS.  87 

gown.  Gossip  does  not  say  whether  he  wore  his  military 
clothes  in  the  dinning-hall  at  Trinity  College,  Cambridge, 
where  he  kept  terms  during  his  educational  career  at 
Lincoln's  Inn. 

At  the  close  of  the  last  century,  when  all  ranks  of  the 
nation  armed  in  order  that  they  might  drive  the  French- 
men into  the  sea  if  the  First  Napoleon  should  venture 
to  throw  a  hostile  force  on  our  shores,  the  lawyers  of 
London  raised  three  separate  volunteer  corps.  Instead  of 
combining  their  numbers  the  Inns  of  Court  established 
two  regiments — the  B.I.C.A.,  or  Bloomsbury  and  Inns 
of  Court  Association,  and  the  Temple  Corps ;  the 
B.I.C.A.  was  called  the  Lincoln's  Inn  Volunteers;  and 
when  the  Temple  Corps  received  from  Sheridan  the 
sobriquet  of  "  The  Devil's  Own,"  the  mob  christened  the 
Lincoln's  Inn  men  "  The  Devil's  Invincibles."  Of  these 
two  bodies  the  Temple  Corps  was  the  more  favorably 
known.  It  was  confined  to  members  of  the  Bench  and 
Bar,  and  legr-al  dignitaries  swelled  its  musters.  Of  this 
corps  Erskine  was  colonel ;  and  speaking  of  him.  Lord 
Campbell  says  : — "  I  did  once,  and  only  once,  see  him 
putting  his  men  through  their  manoeuvres,  on  a  summer's 
evening  in  the  Temple  Gardens,  and  I  well  recollect  that 
he  gave  the  word  of  command  from  a  paper  which  he 
held  before  him,  and  in  which  I  conjectured  that  his 
'  instructions'  were  written  out  as  in  a  brief."  ' 

An  active  rivalry  and  some  ill-feeling  existed  between 
the  two  corps.  In  the  estimation  of  the  public  and  also 
of  the  legal  profession,  the  Lincoln's  Inn  corps  was  the 
inferior  regiment.  "The  Devil's  Own"  comprised  a 
larger  number  of  judges  and  distinguished  leaders  of  the 

'  In  another  note  the  biographer  of"  The  Chancellors  "  says — "Of  the 
other  two  most  noted  volunteer  commanders  in  the  metropolis,  one  had 
been  a  miller,  and  went  by  the  name  of  Marshal  Sacks;  and  the  other 
actually  was  a  pastrycook  in  the  City,  famous  for  selling  good  lurtle-soup, 
and  he  was  dubbed  Marshal  Tureen." 


88  PLEASANTRIES     OF    ENGLISH 

bar,  and  declined  to  enroll  any  student  or  lawyer  who 
was  not  a  member  of  an  Inn  of  Court.  On  the  other 
hand,  the  "  Invincibles "  were  glad  to  increase  their 
number  with  recruits  drawn  from  the  inferior  rank  of  the 
profession.  The  admission  of  attorneys  subjected  the 
corps  to  jokes  equally  humorous  and  pungent.  It  was 
said  that  when  Lieutenant-Colonel  Cox,  the  Master  in 
Chancery,  who  cominanded  the  corps,  gave  the  word 
"Charge,"  two-thirds  of  his  rank  and  file  took  out  their 
note-books  and  wrote  down  6s.  8c/.  Notwithstanding 
the  ungenerous  ridicule  cast  upon  the  B.I.C.A.,  several 
eminent  law\-ers  served  in  its  ranks,  John  Scott  was 
on  its  roll  after  his  elevation  to  the  peerage,  and  Attor- 
ne}^  General  Law  (subsequently  Lord  Ellenborough)  was 
retained  for  many  months  in  the  awkward  squad  be- 
cause he  failed  to  satisfy  the  requirements  of  the  drill- 
sergeant.  "  During  the  long  war,"  Eldon  used  to  say, 
"  I  became  one  of  the  Lincoln's  Inn  volunteers,  Lord 
Ellenborough  at  the  same  time  being  one  of  that  corps. 
It  happened,  unfortunately  for  the  military  character  of 
both  of  us,  that  we  were  turned  out  of  the  awkward 
squadron  for  awkwardness.  I  think  Ellenborough  was 
more  awkward  than  I  was,  but  others  thought  it  was 
difficult  to  determine  which  of  us  was  the  worst."  This 
expulsion  certainly  did  not  occur  at  an  early  date  of  the 
regiment's  career,  and  it  .may  be  presumed  that  the 
ejectment  never  actually  occurred  ;  but  that  Eldon  and 
Ellenborough  were  irregular  attendants  and  awkward 
soldiers  on  parade  can  be  easily  believed  by  the  present 
writer,  who  without  arrogance  may  claim  for  himself  the 
honor  of  being  the  most  inefficient  private  in  the  exist- 
ing Inns  of  Court  corps. 

"  I  think,"  said  Lord  Eldon,  when  he  was  an  old  man, 
"  the  finest  sight  I  ever  beheld  was  the  great  review  in 
Hyde  Park  before  George  III.     The  king  in  passing  ad- 


COURTS    AND     LAWYERS.  89 

dressed  Tom  Erskinc,  who  was  colonel,  asking  him  the 
name  of  his  corps.  He  answered,  '  The  Devil's  Own.' 
The  Lincoln's  Inn  Volunteers  always  went  by  the  name 
of  'The  Devil's  Invincibles.'  "  The  king's  courtesy  to 
the  Templars  filled  the  hearts  of  the  Invincibles  with 
jealousy  and  wrath  ;  for  they  received  no  similar  atten- 
tion. 

A  letter  written  by  Scott  soon  after  the  review,  shows 
that  in  his  old  age  he  faithful!}-  recalled  the  emotions 
roused  by  the  spectacle.  "  We  had  a  most  glorious  ex- 
hibition," he  wrote  June  6th,  1799,  "here  on  the  king's 
birthday,  in  the  review  of  the  volunteer  corps,  which 
furnished  much  the  most  magnificent  spectacle  I  have 
ever  seen.  As  a  non-effective  in  an  awkward  squadron, 
I  had  the  modesty  not  to  show  myself  in  arms,  though 
I  have  military  character  enough  to  attend  the  drill 
occasionally  in  a  more  private  scene.  Your  friend, 
T'slajor  Sir  William  Scott's  corps,  not  having  \-et  been 
Ijold  enough  to  attempt  the  strong  measure  of  firing, 
vv'cre  also  absent." 

Tile  corps  that  had  not  attempted  the  strong  measure  of 
firing  was  a  corps  of  doctors  and  proctors,  who,  notwith- 
st'anding  their  strong  reasons  for  approving  any  zow~ 
tine'-ital  war  in  which  England  was  a  partner,  became 
warlilce  under  the  dread  of  invasion.  This  regiment  of 
civiliaiis,  the  third  corps  composed  of  metropolitan  law- 
yers, was  under  the  command  of  Lord  Eldon's  elder 
brother,  Sir  William  Scott,  better  known  to  ordinary 
readers  of  the  present  day  as  Lord  Stowell. 

Before  the  vol'unteer  movement  of  that  period  died 
out,  tiie  Lincoln's  Inn  corps  was  disbanded,  when  those 
of  its  old  members  who  were  Inns  of  Court  men  and 
wished  to  continue  tlieir  niaitial  exercises,  joineil  "The 
Devil's  Own."  The  present  compiler's  authority  for 
this  statement  is  Mr.  Espinasse,  who  says,  "  The  hats  of 


90  PLEASANTRIES     OE    ENGLISH 

the  Lincoln's  Inn  corps  were  round,  surmounted  with 
black  bearskin  across  the  crown.  A  tall  red  and  white 
feather  composed  of  the  hackles  of  a  cock,  rose  in  the 
front  of  it,  and  presented  a  martial  and  grenadier-like 
appearance.  But  all  that  military  gayety  had  no  charms 
for  Stebbing :  he  could  not  be  reconciled  to  a  round, 
and  pined  for  his  pinch  ;  he  never  on  coming  to  the 
parade  omitted  his  nialediction  against  the  bad  taste  of 
Sir  William  Grant,  and  the  niartial  ornament  with  which 
he  had  chosen  to  furnish  his  head.  His  regrets  became 
insupportable.  Notwithstanding  the  talents  of  our  com- 
manding officer,  and  the  rank  of  many  of  the  privates, 
our  military  character  was  not  splendid,  and  we  merged 
into  the  Law  Association,  commanded  by  Lord  Erskine." 
Though  Erskine  was  a  poor  commander,  he  had  just 
views  with  regard  to  the  volunteer  movement.  When 
the  government  lawyers  maintained  that  the  volunteers 
had  bound  themselves  to  the  service  till  the  end  of  th.-" 
war,  Erskine  gave  a  directly  opposite  opinion.  "  If,"  he 
said,  "  the  term  volunteer  is  supposed  to  be  satisfied  by 
the  original  spontaneousness  of  the  enrollment,  leaving 
him  afterwards  bound,  then  every  enlisted  soldier  must 
equally  be  considered  to  be  a  volunteer,  and,  '."ith  the 
difference  of  receiving  money,  and  the  local  extent  of 
service  excepted,  would  be  on  equal  footing  both  as  to 
merit  and  independence."  A.fter  much  discussion,  tbe 
question  was  brought  into  the  King's  Bench,  wh«n  Lord 
Ellenborough  (of  the  B.I.C.A.)  had  risen  to  be  chief  of 
the  court.  Attorney  General  Perceval  appeared  for  the 
government,  and  Erskine  replied.  The  unanimous  de- 
cision of  the  judges  confirmed  the  opinions  given  by  the 
Colonel  of  the  Devil's  Own,  and  settled  the  question  iii 
fa\or  of  those  many  volunteers  who  having  felt  war's 
alarms  were  now  bent  upon  confining  their  energies  to 
peaceful  pursuits. 


COURTS    AND     LAWYERS. 


9T 


That  English  lawyers  have  not,  in  aught  that  concerns 
their  military  reputation,  degenerated  since  the  days  of 
Erskine,  is  shown  by  the  enthusiasm  with  which  they 
prepared  for  bloody  contest  in  April,  1848,  and  by  the 
resolution  with  which  they  have  maintained  the  effici- 
ency and  character  of  their  Volunteer  Rifle  Corps,  since 
the  death  of  that  good  soldier  and  courteous  gentleman, 
Lieutenant-Colonel  Brewster,  under  whose  tuition  and 
command  the  regiment  renewed  the  eclat  of  Erskine's 
"  Templars." 

In  the  first  rank  of  our  present  legal  dignitaries,  there 
is  at  least  one  eminent  man  whose  personal  career  is 
another  proof  that  wearers  of  the  sword  may  aspire  to 
the  honors  of  the  gown.  Like  Erskine,  Lord  Chelms- 
ford made  his  first  venture  in  the  fighting  trade.  As  a 
midshipman  on  board  the  Cambrian,  Frederick  Thesiger 
assisted  in  the  second  boiDbardment  of  Copenhagen; 
and  having  both  as  advocate  and  wit,  equalled  Thomas 
Erskine's  splendid  renown,  he,  like  Erskine,  won  the 
seals. 


III. 
RIDING   AND    DRIVING. 


CHAPTER     XIV 


ALTHOUGH  the  Inns  of  Court  at  the  present  time 
number  a  f^oodly  arr.u'  of  ijentlemcn  who  habitu- 
ally follow  hounds  and  are  honorably  known  in  the  best 
hunting  countries,  equestrian  adroitness  is  by  no  means 
a  univjrsil  accomplishm  :nt  of  wjarers  of  the  lonij 
robe;  but  from  the  daysof  Odo  till  the  general  adoption 
of  carriages,  the  law\^er  was  invariably  a  skillful  horse- 
man. He  rode  in  armor  over  hard-fought  fields,  and  i''. 
the  discharge  of  the  peaceful  duties  of  his  profession  he 
was  ccaistantly  in  the  saddle.  "Whilst  the  courts  followed 
the  king's  person,  suitors  and  their  advisers  learned  in 
the  law  could  win  neither  cause  nor  fee  without  riding 
for  it.  In  the  royal  train  came  the  judges,  superbly 
mounted  and  richly  attired,  so  that  in  their  progress 
from  city  to  city  they  enhanced  *.he  pomp  and  sph'ncior 
of  their  sovereign;  and  in  the  train  of  the  judges  can^e 
the  learned  sergeants  and  counsel,  the  registr.-'t^  »;i  i 
clerks,  reining  mettlesome  steeds  and  equipped  in  a;-tv|e 
that  accorded  with  the  gorgeous  magnificence  of  the 
entire  cavalcade.  For  many  a  day  the  judges  were 
powerful  ecclesiastics,  who  found  their  chief  pascime  in 
the  sports  of  the  field  ;  and  ancient  records  tell  how 
these  chieftains  of  the  Church  lavished  money  on  their 


I 


COURl'S    AND     LAWYERS.  93 

.ii-ablcs.  In  those  days  of  picturesque  chivalr}-,  the 
horse,  hound,  and  hawk  were  the  fast  companions  of 
every  man  whose  purse  was  full,  and  whose  place,  by 
birth  or  deed,  was  fixed  amontjst  the  "gentle  of  the 
land."  And  being  gentle  by  office,  culture,  descent,  the 
early  lawyers  would  have  been  horsemen,  even  if  they 
had  not  been  required  to  ride  whithersoever  it  might 
please  the  lord  of  the  realm  to  hold  his  court. 

When  the  courts  were  permanently  fixed  at  West- 
minster, the  lawyer  was  less  frequently  compelled  to 
mount  horse  in  behalf  of  his  clients;  but  the  reform 
wrought  less  change  in  his  habits  than  readers  might 
suppose.  By  boat  he  could  pass  through  the  Temple  to 
Westminster,  where  the  Chancellor  and  common  law 
judges  during  term  dispensed  justice  in  the  great,  noisy, 
dirty,  splendid  hall — splendid  with  banners  and  the 
bright  dresses  of  judges,  sergeants,  spectators:  noisy 
with  the  hum  of  a  dense  multitude,  with  the  barbarous 
language  of  the  law,  and  with  the  low  tones  of  the  judges 
sitting  in  open  courts,  within  sight  of  each  other.  But 
magnates  of  the  bar,  and  even  sad  apprentices  of  the 
law,  preferred  the  saddle  to  the  boat,  and  were  wont  to 
make  the  daily  journey  from  their  inns  to  Westminster 
on  horseback  in  the  train  of  the  judge  before  whom  they 
practiced.  But  though  he  could  reach  the  courts  at 
Westminster  without  using  spur  or  bit,  the  lawyer  still 
journeyed  about  the  country  on  circuit  ;  and  on  circuit 
the  judges  and  the  whole  profession  maintained  the 
same  pomp  and  gaudy  splendor  which  had  characterized 
their  progresses  when  they  were  part  of  the  sovereign's 
retinue.  For  safety,  as  well  as  for  theatrical  effect,  they 
rode  en  masse,  attended  by  the  sheriff's  armed  escort, 
and  themselves  ready  to  defend  the  majesty  of  law 
against  the  lawless  bands  who  might  attack  tlicm  on 
their  w;*--  through  unreclaimed  forests,  or  over  desolatj 


94  PLEASANTRIES     OE    ENGLISH 

heaths.  The  bright  pageantry  and  all  the  pomp'ur, 
circumstances  of  feudal  life  surrounded  their  march. 
When  they  moved,  crimson  and  gold,  burnished  steel 
and  floating  ancient  gladdened  the  eye  ;  at  the  same 
time  the  ear  was  addressed  by  the  blare  of  trumpets, 
the  rattle  of  armor,  the  tramp  of  iron  feet,  the  neighing 
of  horses,  and  the  joyous  hum  of  riders.  Such  were  the 
splendor  and  glory  of  circuit  under  Plantagenets  ! 

By  degrees  these  judicial  progresses  lost  much  of  their 
pristine  gorgeousness ;  but  in  the  sixteenth  century 
Wolsey,  with  a  taste  for  imperial  display  which  it  is  ab- 
surd to  account  for  by  a  sneering  reference  to  his  arro- 
gance and  personal  vanity,  delighted  the  vulgar  and 
incensed  the  rich  by  the  unprecedented  costliness  and 
grandeur  of  the  pageants,  with  which  he  illustrated  his 
tenure  of  the  seals. 

In  the  reign  of  Elizabeth,  Wolsey's  state  was  imper- 
fectly reproduced  by  Hatton  on  May  3,  1587,  when  he 
rode  to  Westminster  Hall,  after  entertaining  the  judges 
and  nobility  in  Ely  Place.  Mounted  on  a  richly-ca- 
parisoned palfrey,  he  rode  between  Lord  Treasurer 
Burghley  and  the  Earl  of  Leicester, — a  long  train  of 
mounted  noblemen  and  gentlemen,  judges  in  their 
robes,  and  knights  ready  for  the  field,  following  him  in 
order,  two  and  two. 

Francis  Bacon's  progress  from  Gray's  Lin  to  West- 
minster (May  7,  1617)  has  been  described  by  many 
writers  who,  however  widely  they  differ  in  estimating 
his  moral  worth,  concur  in  celebrating  the  brilliance  and 
completeness  of  the  new  Lord  Keeper's  pageant. 

Bacon's  successor  dispensed  with  the  ancient  cere- 
monial of  a  mounted  procession  when  he  opened  the 
courts  in  his  character  of  Lord  Keeper.  Of  humble  ex- 
traction, John  Williams  had  not  in  his  youth  acquired 
the  arts  of  the  manege ;  as  an  ecclesiastic,  who  had  forced 


COURTS    AND    LAWYERS.  95 

his  way  into  Chancery  against  the  judgment  and  inter- 
ests of  all  regularly  educated  lawyers,  he  was  very  un- 
popular with  the  profession  over  whom  he  was  about  to 
preside  ;  as  an  upstart  he  endured  the  scorn  of  the  nobil- 
ity. Doubtful  whether'he  could  sit  securely  in  a  saddle, 
and  certain  that  neither  the  lawyers  nor  the  aristocracy 
would  care  to  ride  in  his  train,  he  prudently  resolved  to 
avoid  the  discomfort  and  perils  of  the  customary  proces- 
sion. He  decided  on  walking  to  Westminster  Hall — not 
a  long  walk,  as  he  lived  in  the  Deanery.  In  obedience  to 
his  summons,  the  judges  assembled  at  the  Deanery,  fol- 
lowed the  new  Lord  Keeper  to  the  Abbey,  knelt  behind 
him  in  Henry  VH.'s  Chapel,  whilst  he  prayed  for  sud- 
den enlightenment  about  Chancery  law  and  practice,  and 
finally  attended  him  on  foot  to  the  adjacent  Hall,  where 
he  repaid  their  reluctant  courtesy  by  lecturing  then  on 
the  corruption  and  infamous  usages  of  their  profession. 

Amongst  the  legal  processions  of  James  I.'s  reign, 
mention  should  be  made  of  the  grand  array  of  lawyers 
and  knights  who  attended  Sir  Henry  Montague  to  West- 
minster on  November  14,  1616,  on  his  elevation  to  the 
chieftancy  of  the  King's  Bench.  "  First,"  says  Dugdale, 
"  went  on  foot  the  young  gentlemen  of  the  Inner  Temple ; 
after  them  barristers  according  to  their  seniority  ;  next, 
the  officers  of  the  King's  Bench  ;  then  the  said  Chief 
Justice  himself  on  horseback,  in  his  robes  ;  the  Earl  of 
Huntingdon  on  his  right  hand,  and  the  Lord  Willoughby, 
of  Eresby,  on  his  left  ;  with  above  fifty  knights  and  gen- 
tlemen of  quality  following."  Dugdale's  description  of 
this  pageant  is  the  more  interesting  because  it  refers  to 
an  obsolete  custom.  The  Chancellor's  processions  are 
still  retained  in  the  annual  pomp  with  which  the  courts 
are  opened  after  the  long  vacation  ;  but  since  Lord  Ten- 
terden  was  attended  to  the  House  of  Lords,  in  1827,  by 
a  strong  muster  of  the  bar,  the  streets  of  London   have 


96  PLEASANTJ^IES     OF    ENGLISH 

not   been    blocked   by  any  demonstration   in   honor  of  a 
Cliief  Justice. 

In  former  times,  the  justices  of  the  King's  Bench 
court,  making  a  state  progress  to  Westminster,  were 
accustomed  to  ride  upon  mules,  and  not  on  horses.  The 
mule,  doubtless,  was  first  employed  in  King's  Bench 
processions  by  an  ecclesiastical  Chief  Justice  ;  and  the 
later  clerical  judges  not  only  rode  the  same  beast,  but 
fixed  the  custom  which  lay  judges  were  long  content  ti 
maintain.  Dugdale,  in  the  '  Origines  Juridicales,*  says  : 
"  It  is  reported  that  John  Whiddon,  a  justice  of  this 
court,  was  the  first  of  the  judges  who  rode  to  Westmin- 
ster Hall  on  a  horse  or  gelding,  for  before  that  time  they 
rode  on  mules." 

As  the  use  of  carriages  grew  more  general,  eques- 
trian adroitness  became  less  common  amongst  lawyers. 
Instead  of  riding  their  circuits,  the  judges  began  to 
travel  from  town  to  town  in  ponderous  coaches,  drawn 
by  six  or  eight  horses.  Ere  long  the  use  of  the  saddle 
was  thought  inconsistent  with  the  dignity  of  a  judge 
entering  a  provincial  capital  to  open  the  assizes;  and 
the  king's  justice,  who  in  accordance  with  ancient  usage 
rode  into  a  cathedral  town,  sitting  on  his  horse,  by  the 
side  of  the  sheriff,  found  himself  the  object  of  animad- 
versions not  more  friendly  than  those  that  were  recently 
showered  by  influential  journals  on  a  well-known  judge 
who  provoked  their  hostile  criticism  by  traveling  from 
his  suburban  villa  to  Westminster  Hall  upon  the  knife- 
board  of  an  omnibus. 

During  the  civil  war  and  Commonwealth  the  ancient 
equestrian  processions  of  lawyers  through  London  were 
discontinued;  and  though  practicing  barristers  continued 
to  ride  circuit,  a  class  of  lawyers  arose  who  were  entirely 
unskilled  in  the  manege.  At  the  Restoration  there  were 
judges,  registrars,  chamber-barristers,  and  London  attor- 


COURTS    AND     LAWYERS.  97 

neys,  who  could  not  have  galloped  over  Hampstead  Heath 
without  humiliating  accident.   Amongst  the  ludicrous  in- 
cidents of  Charles   II. 's  coronation  was  the  discomfiture 
of  an  eminent  lawyer,  who,  having  joined  the  royal  caval- 
cade on  a  skittish  charger,  was  thrown  to  the  ground  in 
the  presence  of  courtiers  and  mob.     "  Thus  did  the  day 
end,"  records  Samuel  Pepys,  in  his  "  Coronation  Notes," 
"with  joy  everywhere;  and  blessed  be  God,  I  have  not 
heard  of  any  mischance  to  anybody  through  it  all,  but 
only  to   Sergeant   Glynne,  whose   horse   fell  upon   him 
yesterday,  and  is  like  to  kill  him,  which  people  do  please 
themselves  to  see  hov;  just  God  is  to  punish  the  rogue 
at  such  a  time  as  this,  he  being  now  one  of  the  king's 
sergeants,  and   rode  in   the  cavalcade  with   Maynard,  to 
whom  people  wish  the  same  fortune."     Nothing  is  more 
amusing  in  Pepys's  Diary  than  the  rapid  growth  of  his 
loyalty.     The  difference  of  his  tone  on  politics  between 
the  opening  of  1660  and  Charles's  coronation   in  1661  is 
characteristic  and  laughable  ;  but  the  young  Admiralty 
clerk  does  not  often  display  such  an   intolerant  and  vin- 
dictive   temper    as    he   exhibits    in   the   paragraph   just 
quoted.   In  the  days  of  the  Republic,  Glyn  was  a  repub- 
lican :  and  when  royalty  once  more  came  into  fashion, 
he  adapted  himself  to  new  circumstances  with  a  prudent 
versatility  that  characterized  the  lawyers  almost  as  gen- 
erally as  the  churchmen  of  the  period.     Having  acted  as 
Chief  Justice  of  the  upper  bench  under  the  Protectorate, 
he  was  knighted   and  made  king's  sergeant  by  Charles 
II.,  and  held  high  places  amongst  leading  advocates  till 
his  death  in  1666.     But  his  enemies  never  ceased  to  twit 
him  with   his  tergiversation,  and   also   with   the  receipt 
cf  royal  favors — a  fact  far  more  painful  to  his  rivals  than 
the  political  perfidy  with  which  they  charged  him.     But. 
Itr  liit  him  in  the  oft-quoted  couplet — 

"  Did  not  the  learned  Giyn  and  Maynard 
To  make  good  subjects  traitors  strain  hard?" 
!•— 7 


q8  pleasantries    OF    ENGLISH 

Though  the  Londoners  saw  in  Glyn's  besmeared  robes  a 
proof  of  God's  displeasure  with  Cromwellian  supporters, 
and  therefore  prayed  that  Maynard  might  be  humiliated 
in  like  manner,  the  latter  lawyer  kept  his  place  in  the 
cavalcade  without  mishap;  and  subsequently,  having 
out-lived  Charles  II.  and  seen  James's  flight,  welcomed 
William  of  Orange  with  a  flash  of  epigrammatic  wit. 

The  Restoration  saw  a  revival  of  the  periodic'  proces- 
sions of  mounted  lawyers.  On  October  23,  1660,  Pepys 
made  entry  in  his  Diary  ; — "  In  my  way  thither  I  met 
the  Lord  Chancellor  and  all  the  judges  riding  on  horse- 
back, and  going  to  Westminster  Hall,  it  being  the  first 
day  of  term."  Aubrey  says  the  custom  was  dropped  on 
the  death  of  Sir  Rc^bert  Hyde,  in  1665.  For  several 
years  the  inexpert  horsemen  amongst  the  judges  and 
leaders  of  the  law  ceased  to  dread  the  first  day  of  term, 
as  a  time  when  they  would  certainly  part  with  some  of 
their  skin,  and  might  lose  their  lives.  But  in  1673 
Shaftesbury's  cruel  revival  of  the  equestrian  pomp' 
covered  poor  Judge  Twisden  with  mud  and  derision. 

'  "  His  lordsliip,"  says  Roger  North  in  i\Q  Exa/neii,  "had  an  early  fancy, 
or  rallier  freak,  the  first  day  of  the  term  (when  all  the  officers  of  the  law, 
king's  counsel,  and  judges,  used  to  wait  up(jn  the  Great  Seal  to  Westminster) 
to  make  his  procession  on  horseback,  as  in  old  time  the  way  was,  when 
cod-ches  were  not  so  rife.  And,  accordingly,  the  judges,  &c.,  were  sjioken 
to,  to  get  horses,  as  they  and  all  the  rest  did,  by  borrowing  and  hiring,  and 
so  equipped  themselves  with  black  foot-cloths,  in  the  best  manner  they 
could  :  and  divers  of  the  nobility,  as  usual,  in  compliment  and  honor  to  a 
new  Lord  Chancellor,  attended  also  in  their  equipments.  Upon  notice  in 
town  of  this  calvacade,  all  the  show  company  took  their  places  at  windows 
and  balconies,  with  the  Foot  Guard  in  tiie  streets,  to  partake  of  the  fine 
sight ;  and,  being  once  well  settled  for  the  march,  it  moved,  as  the  design 
was,  statelily  along.  But  when  they  came  to  straights  and  interruptions, 
for  want  of  gravity  in  the  beasts,  and  too  much  in  the  riders,  there  hap- 
pened some  curvetting,  which  made  no  little  disorder.  Judge  I'wisden,  tc) 
his  great  affright  and  the  consternaiion  of  his  grave  brethren,  was  laid  along 
in  the  dirt:  but  all,  at  length,  arrived  safe,  without  loss  of  life  or  limb  in 
tlie  service.  This  accident  was  enough  to  divert  the  like  frolic  for  the 
future,  and  the  very  next  term  afier,  incy  fell  to  their  coaches  as  before.  I 
do  not  mention  this  as  any  evil  in  it  elf,  but  only  as  a  levity  and  an  i  ]• 
judged  action — for  so  it  appeared  to  be  in  re.-.pect  to  the  perpetual  tlax-  oJ 
solemn  customs  and  fornix  that  will  happen  in  the  in  the  succession  of  ages, 
r.  "  reducible  back  to  antiquity  nor  needing  so  to  be;  which  makes  usages 


J 


COURTS    AND    LAWYERS. 


99 


Having  thus  disappeared  with  a  practical  joke,  there 
is  no  ground  for  fear  that  the  Chancellor's  cavalcade  will 
be  revived. 


CHAPTER     XXV. 

OF  Caroline  lawyers  on  horseback  biography  has 
preserved  many  other  pictures,  pleasant  or  keenly 
comic.  Of  Littleton's  ride  from  London  to  York  men- 
tion has  been  already  made.  The  son  of  a  judge,  who 
sat  in  the  Court  of  King's  Bench,  Whitelock,  enjoyed 
horse  exercise  and  the  society  of  barristers  on  circuit, 
before  he  was  himself  called  to  the  bar.  Whilst  he  was 
still  a  Temple  student,  at  a  time  long  prior  to  the  slaugh- 
ter of  his  dogs  and  the  removal  of  his  saddle-horses  by 
Prince  Rupert,  "  according  to  the  leave  he  had  from  his 
father,  and  by  his  means  from  the  several  judges,  he  rode 
all  the  circuits  of  England  to  acquaint  himself  with  his 
native  country,  and  the  memorable  things  therein."  \x\ 
like  manner  Edward  Hyde,  favorably  introduced  to  the 
bar  by  his  uncle,  Sir  Nicholas  Hyde,  Chief  Justice  of  the 
King's  Bench,  rode  circuit  before  he  could  hold  a  brief. 
In  the  summer  of  1628  he  acted  as  his  uncle's  marshal 
on  the  Norfolk  Circuit,  and  had  the  misfortune  to  sicken 
of  the  small-pox  at  Cambridge  whilst  the  trials  were 
going  forward.  \\\  those  days  the  pedestrians  of  the 
Inns  of  Court,  instead  of  climbing  Alpine  mountains, 
used  to  fatigue  themselves  with  long  marches  in  tl:e 
wake    of    the    mounted    circuiteers.       Maynard,    in    liis 

that  are  most  fitting  in  one  time  appear  ridiculous  in  another.  As  here, 
the  setting  grave  men,  used  only  to  coaches,  upon  the  manege  on  horseback, 
only  for  the  vanity  of  show,  to  make  men  wonder  and  children  sport,  with 
hazard  to  most,  mischief  to  some,  and  terror  to  all,  was  very  impertinent 
and  mast  end,  as  it  did,  en  ridlcuk!' 


Tco  PLEASANTRIES    OF    ENGLISH 

younger  days,  was  a  notable  walker,  and  more  than  once 
went  the  Western  Circuit  on  foot. 

In  the  seventeenth  century,  barristers  on  circuit  were 
called  circuiteers;  and  it  was  usual  to  speak  of  them  as 
circuiteering,  when  they  were  traveling  from  assize  town 
to  assize  town.  Of  life  upon  the  Northern,  Norfollc, 
and  Western  Circuits,  in  the  time  of  Charles  II.,  Roger 
North's  biography  of  his  brother.  Lord  Guildford,  con- 
tains some  admirable  and  suggestive  pictures.  "  From 
Newcastle,"  says  Roger,  throwing  much  light  on  the 
perils  which  surrounded  the  bar  on  their  circuiteering 
journeys  in  olden  time,  "  his  lordship's  route  lay  to  Car- 
lisle. The  Northumberland  sheriff  gave  us  all  arms; 
that  is,  a  dagger,  knife,  pen-knife,  and  fork,  altogether. 
And  because  the  hideous  road  along  the  Tyne,  for  the 
many  and  sharp  turnings,  and  perpetual  precipices,  was 
for  a  coach  not  sustained  by  main  force  impassable,  his 
lordship  was  forced  to  take  horse,  and  to  ride  most  part 
of  the  way  to  Hexham.  .  .  .  Here  his  lordship  saw 
the  true  image, of  a  Border  country.  The  tenants  of  the 
several  manors  are  bound  to  guard  the  judges  through 
their  precinct ;  and  out  of  it  they  would  not  go,  no,  not 
an  inch,  to  save  the  souls  of  them.  They  were  a  comical 
sort  of  people,  riding  upon  Jiags,  as  they  call  their  small 
horses,  with  long  beards,  cloaks,  and  long  broadswords, 
with  basket  hilts,  hanging  in  broad  belts,  that  their  legs 
and  swords  almost  touched  the  ground  ;  and  every  one, 
in  his  turn,  with  his  short  cloak  and  other  equipage, 
came  up  cheek  by  jowl,  and  talked  with  my  lord  judge. 
His  lordship  was  very  well  pleased  with  their  discourse, 
for  they  were  great  antiquarians  in  their  bounds." 

Those  who  have  visited,  or  are  familiar  with  the  black 
country  of  Northumbria,  will  relish  this  piece  of  local 
description.  The  country  which  appeared  so  Jiidcous  to 
the  biographer  may  be  extolled  for  picturesque  grandeur, 


COURTS    AND     LAWYERS.  lor 

and  is,  in  its  particular  way,  as  beautiful  as  any  district  of 
England.  The  smoke  of  a  thousand  furnaces  obscures  its 
loveliness  in  these  later  days;  but  when  Judge  North 
rode  from  Newcastle  to  Hexham,  the  air  was  not  less  pure 
than  bracing  ;  and  though  carboniferous  strata  gave  them 
a  dark  tinge,  the  rapid  waters  of  the  Tyne  above  New- 
castle were  clear  as  crystal. 

There  is  reason  to  believe  that  the  gentlem.en  of  the 
Northern  Circuit  not  unfrequently  traveled  the  Border 
country  in  liquor  as  well  as  in  arms.  A  prodigious 
quantity  of  wine  was  drunk  at  circuit-dinners;  and 
the  lawyers,  who  on  rising  from  table  found  themselves 
compelled  to  hasten  onwards  to  the  "  next  town,"  not 
seldom  spurred  across  country  in  a  state  of  perious  in- 
toxication. In  his  younger  days,  Francis  North  nearly 
lost  his  chance  of  the  Seals  on  a  drunken  ride  from 
Colchester. 

In  the  concluding  years  of  his  career  another  story 
was  steadily  told  and  retold,  with  countless  variations,  of 
T^rancis  North,  whose  face  grew  scarlet  with  rage  when- 
ever an  allusion  was  made  to  it  in  his  presence.  It  con- 
cerned neither  horse  nor  saddle  ;  but  as  it  represented  the 
grave  Lord  Keeper  astride  a  noble  and  marvelous  beast, 
it  chunks  insertion  in  this  chapter.  Lord  Keeper  Guild- 
ford had  held  the  seals  for  something  less  than  two  years, 
when  his  opponents  at  court  were  flattering  themselves 
that  they  would  soon  thrust  him  from  the  Marble  Chair, 
and  confer  his  office  on  one  of  their  own  set.  Already 
Jeffreys  was  mentioned  at  Whitehall  and  in  the  Inns  as 
the  man  v/ho  would  certainly  supersede  him  ;  and  so  long 
as  it  v/ould  effect  the  downfall  of  mean-spirited  Guildford, 
there  were  many  who  wished  success  to  the  handsome, 
Vv'itty,  overbearing,  and  equally  unscrupulous  Chiet  Jus- 
tice of  the  King's  Bench.  To  gain  their  purpose,  Jef- 
freys, and  the  clique  who  were   bent  on  bringing  about 


102  PLEASANTRIES    OF    ENGLISH 

the  Lord  Keeper's  dismissal,  strov^e  to  lower  him  in  the 
estimation  of  court  and  country  by  covering  him  with 
ridicule.  Every  week  produced  a  new  story  to  his  dis- 
credit. Lampoon  and  pasquin  were  aimed  at  him  from 
Little  Britain  and  the  Row  ;  and  young  gallants  of  the 
Temple  won  a  welcome  to  the  king's  palace  by  merry 
lies  about  the  unpopular  lawyer. 

Affairs  were  in  this  state,  and  the  Lord  Keeper  was 
fretting  and  fuming  about  the  infamous  machinations 
of  his  enemies,  when  the  town  was  greatly  excited  by 
the  arrival  of  the  first  rhinoceros  that  readied  the  shores 
of  England.  The  beast  was  to  Charles  IL's  London  all 
and  more  than  all  that  the  hippopotamus  was  to  our  own 
town  on  first  coming  to  Regent's  Park.  Ladies  raved, 
savants  lectured,  actors  sung,  wits  jested  about  the 
wondrous  stranger.  The  creature  was  a  female,  and 
received  the  adoration  of  masculine  poets.  The  wildest 
fabrications  were  uttered  about  its  country,  habits,  ac- 
complishments. It  was  very  swift  of  foot  ;  it  could  fly; 
it  could  sing;  it  was  in  communication  with  the  unseen 
world,  and  could  foretell  future  events.  No  one  ques- 
tioned its  identity  with  the  unicorn  of  heraldic  science. 
On  October  22,  1684,  John  Evelyn,  Fellow  of  the  Royal 
Society,  wrote  in  his  diary:  "I  went  with  Sir  William 
Godolphin  to  see  the  rhinoceros  or  unicorn,  being  the 
first  that  I  suppose  was  ever  brought  over  into  England. 
She  belonged  to  some  East  Lidia  merchants,  and  was 
sold  (as  I  remember)  for  above  ;^2,ooo.  At  the  same 
tim.e  I  went  to  see  a  crocodile,  brought  from  some  of  the 
West   Lidia   Islands,  resembling  the  Egyptian  crocodile. 

The  importer  of  the  rhinoceros  was  a  Turkey  merchant 
and  personal  friend  of  Sir  Dudley  North,  who  was  also  a 
merchant,  trading  princip:dly  with  the  ports  of  the  Le- 
vant. At  Dudley's  invitation  the  Lord  Keeper  hurried 
into  the  City  to  get  an  early  peep  at  the  rhinoceros,  and 


I 


COURTS    AND     LAWYERS.  103 

diink:  a  glass  of  wine  v/ith    its  spirited    importer.     With 
characteristic  fuss  he  told  several  persons  whither  he  was 
bound,  exaggerating  the  virtues  of  the  strange  beast,  and 
glorifying  his  brother  Dudley  and  all  other  Turkey  mer- 
chants who  made  money  and  loved  the  king.     The  news 
quickly  spread.    I>ord  Chancellors  now-a-days  can  move 
from  Hyde  Park  Corner  to  the   Mansion   House  without 
a  mob  at  their  heels  ;  but  in  the  lounging,  gaping,  gos- 
siping, seventeenth  century,  a  Lord   Mayor   could   not 
drive   tlirough  the   town  by  daylight   without  being  an 
object   of  attention.      At    Whitehall    malicious    humor 
made  the  most  of  the  Lord  Keeper's  excursion.     Before 
he  set  eyes  on   the  wondrous  creature,  maids  of  honor, 
and   maids   of   no    honor,   pages  and  gentlemen   of  the 
privy    chamber,    were    running    to    and     fro    with    the 
astounding  news  that  the  Lord   Keeper  had  been  riding 
the   rhinoceros    about   the  City.     Was   such   indecorum 
ever  witnessed    in    past   time?     Was  the   Lord    Keeper 
mad?     What  would  the  king  say?      On  the  following 
day  the  guardian  of  the  king's  conscience  was  dining  in 
his  own    house,    when   a  bevy  of   noblemen   and   noisy 
courtiers  called  to  inquire  how  he  felt  after  his  ride. 

The  Lord  Keeper's  biographer  observes — "And  soon 
after  dinner  some  lords  and  others  came  to  his  lordship 
to  know  the  truth  of  himself;  for  the  setters  of  the  lie 
aftirmed  it  positively,  as  of  their  own  knowledge.  That 
did  not  give  his  lordship  much  disturbance,  for  he  ex- 
pected no  better  from  his  adversaries ;  but  that  his  friends, 
intelligent  persons, who  must  know  him  to  be  far  from 
guilty  of  any  childish  levity,  should  believe  it,  was  what 
r'jiled  him  extremely,  and  much  more,  when  they  had 
the  face  to  come  to  him  to  know  if  it  were  true.  I  never 
saw  him  in  such  a  rage,  and  to  lay  about  him  with 
altronts  (which  he  keenly  bestowed  upon  the  minor 
courtiers  that  came  on  the  errand)  as  then  ;  for  he  sent 


T04  PLEASANTRIES    OE    ENGLTSTT 

them  away  with  fleas  in  their  ear.  And  he  was  seriousl/ 
angry  with  his  own  brother,  Sir  Dudley  North,  because 
he  did  not  contradict  the  lie  in  sudden  and  direct  terms, 
but  laughed,  as  taking  the  question  put  to  him  for  a 
banter,  till,  by  iterations,  he  was  brought  to  it.  For  some 
lords  came,  and  because  they  seemed  to  attribute  some- 
what to  the  avowed  positiveness  of  the  reporters,  he 
rather  chose  to  send  for  his  brother  to  attest  than  to  im- 
pose his  bare  denial.  And  so  it  passed  ;  and  the  noble 
earl,  with  Jeffries,  and  others  of  that  crew,  made  merry 
and  never  blushed  at  the  lie  of  their  own  making,  but 
valued  themselves  upon  it  as  a  very  good  jest." 


CHAPTER      XVI. 

1  Throughout  the  eighteenth  century  judges 
were  said  to  "  ride  their  circuits,"  although  they 
usually  traveled  in  their  private  coaches  ;  and  even  at 
the  present  day,  when  it  is  a  solecism  to  apply  the  word 
"  riding  "  to  a  person  who  is  taking  carriage  exercise,  it  is 
not  unusual  to  speak  of  judges  as  "  riding  their  rounds." 
Lord  King,  whilst  Chief  Justice  of  the  Common  Pleas, 
rode  in  turn  each  of  the  English  Circuits  ;  whereas  it 
had  previously  been  the  custom' — but  by  no  means  the 
invariable  custom  —  for  a  judge  to  confine  his  official 
journeys  to  one  circuit. 

P.ailway  locomotion  is  a  great  aid,  as  well  as  conve- 
nience, to  young  barristers  struggling  into  practice.     In 

'  This  custom  had  been  by  no  means  so  invariable  as  Lord  Campbell  sup- 
posed when  he  wrote,  "  Lord  Chief  Justice  King  went  as  judge  of  assize 
twice  a  year,  and  he  broke  through  the  ^/^Z  custom  for  a  judge  to  continue 
to  '  ride  the  same  circuit.'  "  Before  the  Revolution,  judges  very  commonly 
changed  their  circuits.  Francis  North  acted  judicially  on  more  than  one 
circuit.  The  same  also  was  the  case  with  Jeffreys,  Hale,  and  other  well- 
known  judges. 


COURTS    AND    LAWYERS.  105 

the  days  just  prior  to  the  introduction  of  iron  roads, 
counsel  were  forbidden  by  etiquette  to  use  the  stage- 
coaches. It  was  thought  that  the  dignity  of  the  bar 
would  be  diminished  if  Mr.  Briefless  took  his  chance 
with  the  common  herd  of  travelers  ;  and  sticklers  for  the 
purity  and  independence  of  the  robe  gravely  argued  that 
the  honor  of  the  English  bar  would  run  risk  of  defile- 
ment if  an  advocate,  sitting  in  the  same  coach  with  attor- 
neys and  suitors,  or  important  witnesses,  entered  into 
conversation  with  them,  and  exerted  himself  to  maintain 
the  sociable  intercourse  common  with  travelers  by  stage- 
coach. If  barristers  on  circuit  decided  not  to  ride  in 
the  saddle,  they  were  required  to  travel  in  chaises,  or  to 
tramp.  They  might  walk  the  round,  or  journey  in  the 
luxurious  ease  of  their  private  carriages,  or  pass  from 
town  to  town  in  a  hired  vehicle  ;  but  no  wearer  of  the 
long  robe  could  enter  an  assize  town  in  a  public  convey- 
ance without  incurring  an  indictment  for  misdemeanor 
before  the  high  court  of  the  circuit,  empowered  to  pun- 
ish circuiteers  for  offenses  against  professional  etiquette. 
Charles  Abbott,  Lord  Tenterden,  never  mounted  a 
horse  in  the  whole  course  of  his  life.  In  his  old  age, 
on  being  advised  to  take  horse-exercise  for  the  benefit  of 
his  declining  health,  he  replied,  calling  Francis  North  to 
mind,  "  that  he  should  certainly  fall  off  a  horse  like  an 
ill-balanced  sack  of  corn,  as  he  had  never  crossed  a  horse 
any  more  than  a  rhinoceros,  and  that  he  had  become 
too  stiff  and  feeble  to  begin  a  course  of  cavaliering.  My 
father,"  he  added,  "  was  too  poor  to  keep  a  horse,  and  I 
was  too  proud  ever  to  earn  sixpence  by  holding  the  horse 
of  another."  On  joining  the  Oxford  Circuit,  in  1796,  he 
started  a  horse  and  gig,  in  which  vehicle  he  drove  cir- 
cuit. About  two  years  after  joining  the  Oxford  round 
he  nearly  lost  his  life,  near  Monmouth,  from  a  severe 
fall  from  his  gig.     As  he  had  already  taken  much  of  the 


io6  PLEASANTRIES     OF    ENGLISH 

circuit  business,  his  brother-circuitccrs  regretted  that  he 
did  not  break  his  neck  instead  of  his  leg. 

Of  course,  barristers  might  travel  together  in  one 
coach  ;  and  it  was  usual  for  circuiteers  to  form  themselves 
into  parties,  sharing  the  heavy  cost  of  "  posting."  But 
even  when  a  barrister  found  himself  one  of  an  agreeable 
party,  "  posting"  was  a  disagreeable  as  well  as  an  expen- 
sive process.  The  sharers  of  a  chaise  could  not  journey 
a  stage  without  consulting  the  wishes  of  the  entire  party, 
and  often  those  wishes  were  at  variance.  One  man 
would  like  to  sleep  another  night  in  a  town,  waiting  for 
a  last  chance  of  business,  or  a  last  kiss  from  a  provincial 
coquette  ;  another  would  be  anxious  to  reach  the  next 
town,  where  he  was  engaged  to  appear  in  a  heavy  cause 
that  required  days  of  consultation  and  preparation  ;  a 
third  would  propose  an  excursion  to  the  house  of  a 
county  magnate  who  had  asked  them  to  dinner;  a  fourth 
would  mention  the  charms  of  a  trout-stream,  and  sug- 
gest a  digression  from  the  turnpike  for  the  sake  of  a 
day's  fishing. 

Barristers  posting  through   the  country  saw  far  too 
much  of  each  other.     Bickerings  and  feuds  arose  ;'  and 

'  The  amusing  author  of  "  T.aw  and  Lawyers,"  in  the  following  terms, 
draws  attention  to  a  squabble  which  took  place  in  a  coach  between  Mr. 
Justice  Gould  and  Mr.  liaron  Ilotham  :  "Mr.  Cradock  mentions  having  had, 
while  acting  as  sheriff  in  the  room  of  a  friend,  to  receive  at  Leicester  Mr. 
Justice  Gould  and  Mr.  Baron  Holham.  As  soon  as  he  was  seated  with  them 
in  the  coach,  Mr.  Justice  Gould  said  to  him,  '  We  set  out  so  early  from 
Derby  in  the  morning  that  we  did  not  receive  any  letters  or  public  accounts 
— iias  any  news  arrived  at  Lincoln  Irom  America?'  'None  that  is  good,  I 
fear,  my  lord  ;  there  seems  to  have  been  some  disaster  in  the  expedition  to 
the  Chesa]5eak.'  '  Has  there  ?'  exclaimed  the  judge,  hastily  ;  '  that  is  exactly 
wiiat  I  feared  and  expected.'  'And  pray,'  cried  Baron  Hotham,  warmly, 
'  why  did  your  lordship  particularly  ffar  and  expect  some  disaster  to  the 
Chesapeak  ?  Was  it  because  my  brother  is  the  leading  admiral  on  that  sta- 
tion ?  '  'Upon  my  heart,'  replied  Mr.  Justice  Gould,  '  that  circumstance 
never  occurred  to  me,  or  I  should  not  have  so  expressed  myself.'  Mr.  Baron 
Jlotham,  howevv-r,  did  not  appear  at  all  satisfied,  and  the  journey  to  Leices- 
ter was  very  uncomfortable  in  consequence.  When  tliey  arrived  at  the 
judge's  lodgings,  ihe  under-sheriff  whispered  to  Mr.  Cradock,  '  For  Heaven's 
sake,  what  has  been  the  matter?     I   rode   close  to  the  siile  of  the  window 


I 


COURTS    AND     LAWYERS.  107 

-ometimes  the  "sad  apprentices"  having  ordered  the 
horses  to  stop,  exchanged  shots  at  the  half-way  house  of 
a  long  pwsting-stage.  Greatly  conducive  to  these  petty 
squabbles  was  the  irksome  slowness  of  traveling.  Of 
course  the  lawyers  in  good  practice  worked  .at  their 
papers  while  the  posters  cantered  up  hill  and  down  dale 
cit  the  average  rate  of  eight  or  nine  miles  per  hour,  but 
briefless  juniors,  unless  they  were  rare  and  most  excep- 
tional impostors,  could  not  through  a  long  day's  drive 
feign  earnest  application  to  the  statement  of  dummy 
briefs.  Usually  they  shortened  the  hours  with  cards  or 
dice  ;  and  where  four  men  posted  together  in  a  double- 
seated  coach,  they  would  play  whist  on  a  table  made  by 
a  plank  fitted  into  the  windows  of  the  carriage.  This 
custom  gave  rise  to  a  painful  scandal  concerning  a  bar- 
rister, who,  after  winning  high  honors  in  his  profession, 
is  still  alive. 

Many  years  since  the  lawyer  lost  an  aged  aunt,  whose 
will  required  her  body  to  be  interred  in  a  distant  part 
of  the  country.  Like  a  dutiful  nephew,  and  in  a  manner 
becoming  his  aunt's  executor,  the  )-oung  barrister,  to- 
gether with  other  gentlemei:,  closely  connected  with  the 
deceased  lady  by  blood  or  business,  journeyed  from  Lon- 
don to  the  place  of  sepulture.  The  hearse  containing 
the  embalmed  body  had  been  sent  forward,  and  the 
mourners  followed  it  at  an  interval  of  a  few  days'  jour- 
ney. The  fii  st  day  was  very  tedious  ;  and  as  several  days 
Avould  follow  it  ere  the  place  of  interment  could  be 
reached,  the  nephew  on  the  second  morning  of  the  dolo- 
lous  expedition  proposed  to  his  companions  in  grief  that 
they  sliould  have  a  rubber,     lie  had  cards  in  his  pocket, 

t'nat  was  open,  in  order  to  prevent  the  altercation  being  heard,  but  thi.:  was 
ini;)o>sil<le.'  On  thi-.  Mr.  Cradocls.  followed  the  judges  into  their  lodgin\.'s, 
■'Hd  declared  to  them  that  he  hatl  never  felt  so  uneasy  in  his  life,  as  he  had 
bci  n  ilie  unwitting  cau^e  of  the  quarrel,  and  begged  the  learned  baron  to  ije 
reconciled  to  his  brother.  This  speech  had  the  desired  effect,  and  harmonv 
was  onctf  more  '•2>?.>irfd 


loS  PLEASANTRIES     OF    ENGLISH 

and  al  the  next  roadside  inn  they  could  get  a  board  that 
would  serve  them  for  a  table.  The  suggestion  was  unan- 
imously adopted  :  and  throughout  the  remainder  of  the 
comfortless  progress,  the  mourners  played  steadily  with 
complete  indifference  to  the  scenery  which  surrounded 
them,  and  with  that  superb  devotion  to  "  the  game," 
which  characterized  whist-players  half  a  century  since. 
Under  the  circumstances,  the  mourners  "  progressed  as 
favorably  as  could  be  expected."  Their  spirits  rose; 
much  money  changed  hands;  and  when  the  four  gentle- 
men stood  in  the  old  lady's  mausoleum,  the  two  who 
had  won  were  sustained  by  an  enlivening  sense  of 
worldly  prosperity  ;  and  the  two  who  had  lost  thirsted 
for  revenge  on  the  homeward  journey. 

Unfortunately,  however,  certain  local  gossips  of  the 
puritanical  district  where  the  old  lady  was  buried,  had 
either  seen  the  mourners  at  whist,  or  heard  how  they 
amused  themselves.  The  story  passed  from  mouth  to 
mouth,  and  reached  London  almost  as  soon  as  the  melan- 
choly v/hist-players.  Of  course  in  London  the  story  lived  ; 
and  years  afterwards,  when  the  nephew  had  risen  to  emi- 
nence in  politics  and  lasv,  people  were  told  at  dinner- 
parties how  the  great  lawyer  had  taken  his  aunt's  body 
from  London  to  Scotland,  playing  cards  on  her  coffin 
tJiroughont  ilic  entire  journey.  This  last  development  of 
the  report  was  delightful.  The  simple  raconteurs  main- 
tained that  the  coffin  was  put  across  the  interior  of  the 
carriage,  the  head  sticking  out  of  one  window,  the  foot 
out  of  the  other,  and  that  the  flippant  nephew  and  his 
friends  thus  cut  and  dealt  upon  the  very  coffln-lid.  That 
the  ordinary  carriage  windows  of  the  period  were  far  too 
small  so  to  admit  a  full-sized  coffin,  and  that  if  the  win- 
dows had  been  blocked  up  with  a  coffin,  the  players 
would  have  been   in  the  dark,  were  facts  about  which 


COURTS    AND     LAWYERS.  lo-j 

gentlemen  telling  the  anecdote  "  on   the  very  best   au- 
thority" did  not  care  to  trouble  themselves. 

It  is  needless  to  say  that  the  custom  of  posting  upon 
circuit  originated  in  convenience  rather  than  etiquette, 
and  was  fixed  by  sheer  necessity  rather  than  by  profes- 
sional taste.  The  public  conveyances  regularly  plying 
between  provincial  towns  were  quite  insufficient  to  meet 
the  exceptional  demands  of  circuiteers,  who  were  conse- 
quently compelled  to  hire  cairiages.  It  having  thus  be- 
come usual  for  barristers  to  post,  regard  for  professional 
decorum  stepped  in,  and  changed  custom  into  law.  When 
railways  began  to  suck  the  traffic  of  the  old  turnpike 
roads,  the  etiquette  of  the  bar  was  relaxed, — counsel 
being  allowed  to  travel  circuit  by  public  conveyances,  if 
they  contrived  to  enter  actual  towns  of  assize  on  horse- 
back or  in  quasi-private  carriages.  Soon  it  was  permitted 
them  to  run  into  an  assize-town  by  ordinary  railway 
trains;  and  when  it  had  once  been  allowed  that  a  bar- 
rister might  travel  circuit  in  a  public  carriage  drawn  by 
machinery,  the  rule  forbidding  him  to  enter  a  public  con- 
veyance drawn  by  animal  power  soon  became  obsolete. 

The  railway  has  done  much  to  destroy  the  ancient 
sociability  of  circuit.  Instead  of  tarrying  steadily  in  each 
town  throughout  assizes,  barristers,  on  the  rising  of  court, 
sometimes  return  to  London  for  dinner,  or  whisk  off  by 
an  express  train  to  a  watering  place  forty  miles  distant. 
Especially  is  this  the  case  on  circuits,  and  parts  of  cir- 
cuits, lying  within  easy  range  of  London.  Even  so  late 
as  the  last  generation,  the  common-law  barrister  looked 
forward  to  circuit  as  a  social  jaunt,  not  less  than  as  a 
journey  in  search  of  fees.  As  soon  as  he  had  ridden 
twenty  miles  from  London,  he  relied  on  his  brother-cir- 
cuiteers  for  companionship  and  the  means  of  wholesome 
recreation.  Occasionally  he  might  dine  at  the  house  of 
a  country  friend  en  route  for  the  "  next  town,"  but  for 


iio  PLEASANTRIES    OF    EX  G  LIS  11 

the  most  j^art  he  found  his  amusement  as  well  as  his  work 
in  tlie  assize-towns.  He  dined  regularly  at  the  bar  mess, 
save  when  he  accepted  a  judge's  invitation,  or  drank  a 
magnum  of  port  at  a  mayor's  table.  The  gentlemen  of 
the  long  robe  did  not  smoke  in  ihose  da\'s,  or  if  they 
smoked  they  were  moderate  and  clandestine  smokers. 
The  cigar  and  pliilosophic  conversation  were  not  amongst 
their  nightly  excitements  :  but  they  had  their  short-whist 
and  steaming  punch,  their  puns  and  good  stories. 

They  lived  with  each  other,  gossiping,  jesting,  drink- 
ing ;  cultivating  the  social  virtues  and  ruining  their  con- 
stitutions in  the  most  approved  fashions  of  the  good  old 
times.  Rare  the  days,  and  still  better  the  nights,  of  every 
iolly  fellow  for  whom  full-bodied  wine  had  mirth  without 
penal  consequences;  and  who  was  known  amongst  his 
brother-circuiteers  as  a  boon- companion,  good  at  a  bot- 
tle, sure  at  cards,  abounding  in  repartee,  and  able  at  fit 
times  to  sing  "  The  Rising  Barrister,"  or  "  I  know  a 
Judge."  But  let  it  not  be  supposed  that  barristers  had 
no  more  elevating  enjoyments.  Loving  woman  as  well 
as  wine  and  song,  they  were  seen  at  county  or  municipal 
balls,  dancing  the  dances  of  the  period,  and  rousing  the 
sentiment  which  knows  not  fashion,  and  is  the  same  now 
that  it  was  before  the  fall  of  Troy. 

But  all  is  changed  now.  "  Circuit  is  not  what  it  used 
to  be  '  "  How  often  is  this  regret  heard  on  the  lips  of 
veterans  who  joined  their  circuits  when  Copley  was  at  the 
height  of  his  fame,  and  Lord  Erskine  a  man  about  town. 
Circuit  is  not  wiiat  it  v/as  !  Here  and  there  may  b^ 
found  an  ainntcur  barrister  who  still  loves  to  ride  the 
summer  circuit,  followed  by  a  mounted  clerk.  A  judge 
can  still  be  pointed  to  in  Westminster,  who,  in  the  fashion 
of  olden  time,  has  "  ridden  his  round."  But  the  pleasure 
and  jromp,  the  leisurely  progress  and  social  friendliness 
of  the  old  circuit  life  are  no  more.     The  attempt  to  pre- 


COURTS    AND    LAWYERS.  rir 

serve  them  is  the  failure  of  a  few  young  men  who  know 
not  the  glory  of  the  past.  The  mess  is  no  longer  a  priv- 
ilege and  a  source  of  vivid  enjoyment,  but  a  heavy  din- 
ner, at  which  leaders  now  and  then  condescend  to  show 
themselves,  and  juniors  eat  in  silence  and  drink  listlessly. 
There  is  a  little  whist  still :  but  the  game  is  a  miserable 
pretense  in  an  age  which  tolerates  no  vice  that  requires 
more  than  two  persons  for  its  consummation.  The  assem- 
blj'-room  is  an  extinct  institution.  Unless  the  mayor 
is  an  attorney,  no  barrister  dines  with  him  ;  whereas 
in  the  good  old  time  no  counsel  was  permitted  to  dine, 
during  assizes,  with  a  mayor  who  belonged  "  to  the  lower 
order  of  the  profession."  What  youngster  is  now-a-days 
ambitious  of  becoming  "the  jolly  good  fellow"  of  his 
circuit?  Why,  the  youngsters  of  this  degenerated  age 
on  the  Home  Circuit  dine  in  Pall  Mall  instead  of  Lewes 
and  Guildford.  This  is  the  sum  of  the  sad  case: — Law- 
yers no  longer  "  ride  circuit,"  they  ''  rail  it." 


CHAPTER     XVII. 

MANY  are  the  good  stories  told  of  great  lawyers 
who,  in  their  earlier  years  of  obscurity  and  com- 
parative indigence,  found  it  diflicult  to  raise  funds  for 
the  purchase  of  a  new  horse.  In  the  summer  of  1741, 
Charles  Pratt  had  for  three  years  ridden  the  Western  Cir- 
cuit— the  circuit  on  which  his  lather,  Sir  John  Pratt,  for 
years  discharged  the  office  of  judge — when  his  horse  sud- 
denly died  at  a  western  assize-town.  Without  clients, 
and  without  large  private  resources,  the  young  circuiteer 
reluctantly  bought  a  fresh  horse  to  replace  the  brute 
which  had  dropped  in  the  middle  of  the  legal  round.  Ac- 
cidents with  horseflesh  never  come  singly  ;  and  scarcely 


112  PLEASANTRIES     OF    ENGLISH 

had  Pratt  purchased  his  new  steed,  when  it  turned  up 
lame.  "  ALas  !"  he  wrote  to  a  friend,  soon  after  his  re- 
turn to  town,  "  my  horse  is  lamer  than  ever — no  sooner 
cured  of  one  shoulder  than  the  other  began  to  halt.  My 
losses  in  horseflesh  ruin  me,  and  keep  me  so  poor  that  I 
have  scarce  money  enough  to  bear  me  in  a  summer 
ramble  ;  yet  ramble  I  must,  if  I  starve  to  pay  for  it." 

The  son  of  a  country  parson  was  more  cruelly  pressed 
than  the  son  of  a  Chief  Justice.  When  lazy,  keen-eyed, 
luquacipus  Ned  Thurlow  had  eaten  his  dinner  and 
donned  a  bar  gown,  he  was  sorely  perplexed  as  to  means 
for  procuring  a  horse.  Like  the  future  Lord  Camden, 
he  selected  the  Western  Circuit ;  but  less  richly  endowed 
by  fortune,  he  encountered  insuperable  obstacles  in  his 
attempts  to  get  possession  by  fair  means  of  a  suitable 
steed.  \\\  the  previous  century  Maynard  had  walked 
the  circuit;  but  Thurlow  was  averse  to  bodily  exercise, 
and  professional  prejudice  ran  strongly  against  pedes- 
trian circuitecrs.  There  was  urgent  want  of  a  horse. 
How  was  it  to  be  supplied?  Thurlow  had  bought  his 
wig  on  credit,  and  he  "ticked"  his  dinners  at  Nando's 
and  the  Mitre  ;  but  the  wary  British  horse-dealer  was 
resolutely  in  favor  of  cash  transactions,  when  his  cus- 
tomers were  unknown  members  of  the  junior  bar.  In 
his  trouble. he  called  on  a  horsedealer,  and  in  the  confi- 
dent tone  of  a  man  who,  without  inconvenience,  could 
at  his  own  cost  put  a  cavalry  regiment  in  the  field,  in- 
timat'  d  that  lie  stood  in  need  of  a  very  superior  road- 
ster.- As  to  price,  money  was  an  affair  of  total  indiffer- 
ence to  him,  so  long  as  he  could  get  a  really  desirable 
animal.  "Show  me  a  horse  that  you  can  recommend; 
and  if  I  like  him  after  t?'ial,  Y\\  have  him  at  your  own 
price."  What  could  mortal  dealer  do  but  assent  to  this 
proposal,  coming  from  the  well  looking,  imperious  young 
man,  whose  aspect  w-as  so  imposing  that  a  shrewd  ob- 


COURTS    AND    LAWYERS.  113 

server  said,  "  It  is  impossible  for  any  one  to  be  so  wise 
as  Thurlow  looks."  Forth\s-ith  a  strong  and  serviceable 
hackney  was  saddled  ;  and  the  young  barrister  mounted. 
The  trial  lasted  longer  than  the  dealer  thought  fair.  In- 
stead of  returning  to  the  stables  in  the  course  of  the  after- 
noon, Thurlov/  rode  off  to  Winchester  ;  and  when  the 
owner  of  the  steed  again  looked  upon  his  property,  the 
creature  had  visited  every  town  on  the  Western  Circuit. 
Together  with  the  horse,  the  dealer  received  a  note  from 
Thurlow,  intimating  that  "  the  animal,  notwithstanding 
some  good  points,  did  not  altogether  suit  him." 

A  good  storj'  is  told  in  "  Campbell's  Chief  Justices,"  of 
George  Wood,  the  famous  special  pleader  and  instructor 
of  law  students.  "  George,"  says  Lord  Campbell,  "  though 
a  subtL-  pleader,  was  very  ignorant  of  horse-flesh,  and 
had  been  cruelly  cheated  in  the  purchase  of  a  horse  on 
which  he  had  intended  to  ride  the  circuit.  He  brought 
an  action  on  the  warranty  that  the  horse  was  '  a  good 
roadster  and  free  from  vice.'  At  the  trial,  before  Lord 
Mansfield,  it  appeared  that  when  the  plaintiff  mounted  at 
the  stables  in  London,  with  the  intention  of  proceeding 
to  Barnet,  nothing  could  induce  the  animal  to  move  for- 
ward a  single  step.  On  hearing  this  evidence,  the  Chief 
Justice,  with  much  gravity,  exclaimed,  '  Who  would  have 
supposed  that  Mr.  Wood's  horse  would  have  dtuiurrcd, 
when  he  ought  to  have  go)ie  to  the  cojintryf  Any  at- 
tempt to  explain  this  excellent  joke  to  lay  gents  would 
be  vain,  and  to  lawyers  would  be  superfluous."  Thus 
says  Lord  Campbell  in  the  "Chief  Justices;"  but  in  his 
earlier  work,  the  "  Chancellors,"  he  attributes  the  pun 
to  Erskine,  and  explains  the  joke  to  the  *•  lay  gents"  w  it.i 
sufficient  clearness. 

When    Lord    Kcnyon- "  Taffy,"  as  Tliurlow   used    to 

call  him  in  the  insolen.cc  of  patronage  and  good-humored 
contempt — first  appeared  amongst  the  barristers  of  the 
I.— 8 


EI4  PLEASANTRIES     OF    ENGLISH 

North  Welsh  Circuit,  he  rode  a  small  Welsh  pony,  given 
him  by  his  economical  fatb.er. 

Mounted  in  like  manner  on  a  pony,  Thomas  Erskine 
joined  the  Home  Circuit  in  the  spring  of  1779;  but  th-; 
smallness  of  his  steed  need  not  be  attributed  to  lack  c^ 
money;  for,  although  his  call  took  place  so  recently  as 
the  July  of  the  previous  year,  he  was  already  in  great 
and  lucrative  practice. 

Like  Eldon,  and  the  majority  of  eminently  successful 
men  who  have  raised  themselves  to  conspicuous  stations 
from  obscure  beginnings,  Erskine  delighted  to  magnify 
the  difficulties  and  privations  of  his  early  manhood.  The 
notorious  suddenness  of  his  rise,  immediately  after  his 
call,  put  it  beyond  his  power  to  romance,  after  the  fashion 
of  John  Scott,  about  long  endurance  of  a  penur)'  that 
rendered  loathsome  fish,  bought  for  a  few  pence  in  an 
unclean  market,  a  suitable  and  welcome  repast.  But  in 
tones  alternately  pathetic  and  triumphant,  he  would  tell 
startling  and  incredible  stories  of  his  sordid  experiences 
between  his  retirement  from  the  army  and  his  call.  The 
ciiildren  whose  hands  he  felt  plucking  his  robe  in  West- 
minster Hall,  were  fed  in  those  days  on  cow-beef;  his 
v.'ife  ate  cow-beef;  he  himself  ate  cow-beef.  If  the 
butcher  had  been  called  to  give  evidence  on  this  point — ■ 
unless  we  are  greatly  mistaken — that  worthy  man  would 
have  been  very  indignant  at  the  suggestion  that  he  dealt 
in  meat  of  an  inferior  quality.  Far  too  much  has  been 
made  of  Erskine's  early  indigence.  His  father's  poverty 
has  been  ridiculously  exaggerated.  Doubtless  young 
Thomas  Erskine  had  less  money  than  appetite  for  the 
luxuries  which  can  be  purchased  with  money;  but  there 
are  facts  that  disprove,  or  at  least  discredit,  the  droll 
tlctions  with  regard  to  the  pi-ivations  of  his  student-life. 
His  family  wer^;  not  in  opuleni  circumstances,  but  he  had 
blood-relations  able  and  wiili:'.^  to  assist  him.    However 


J 


COURTS    AND    LAWYERS.  115 

close  and  sting}^  they  may  sometimes  be  to  those  who  are 
not  of  their  kin,  the  Scotch  of  all  degrees,  and  especially 
those  of  noble  condition,  are  generous  to  members  of  their 
immediate  connexion.  Mrs.  lu-skine  was  th.e  daughter 
of  a  gentleman  who  sat  in  the  House  of  Commons,  and 
though  she  brought  her  husband  n.o  definite  fortune,  she 
was  not  the  child  of  a  necessitous  fither.  That  Erskine 
was  not  cruelly  pressed  for  monc\-  at  the  period  under 
consideration,  is  seen  b)'  tlie  fact  that  he  could  afford  to 
keep  terms  at  Cambridge  whilst  he  ate  dinners  at  Lin- 
coln's Inn.  He  not  onl)'  kejjt  terms  at  Cambridge,  but 
kept  them  as  a  fellow-conimoner  of  the  most  i:xpensive 
college  in  the  University,  Trinity  College.  The  differ- 
ence between  an  ordinary  {)ensioiier's  fees  and  a  fellow- 
commoner's  fees,  was  a  sum  which  no  man  would  have 
sacrificed  without  a  good  purpose,  whilst  his  wife  and 
children  lacked  the  comforts  of  life.  Be  it  also  borne  in 
mind  that  the  mere  cost  of  coachirig  eight  times  per 
annum  between  Cambridge  and  town  was  in  those  days 
a  grave  matter  to  a  very  poor  man.  It  may  be  objected 
that  these  expenses  are,  to  a  certain  extent,  in  favor  of 
the  vievr  that  he  experienced  urgent  poverty  at  the  time 
of  his  call,  since  liberal  expenditure  leads  to  want.  But 
it  surely  seems  far  more  reasonable  to  argue  that  Erskine 
would  not  have  entered  his  profession  in  such  a  costly 
manner  if  he  had  been  pinched  for  the  means  of  living. 

Residence  at  Cambridge  of  course  shortened  the 
period  of  his  studentship  at  Lincoln's  Inn  ;  but  he  could 
have  attained  that  advantage  v/ithout  paying  the  dues 
of  a  fellow-commoner.  Moreover,  in  London  he  led  the 
life  of  a  man  of  pleasure— dining  at  rich  men's  tables, 
dancing  with  ladies  of  fashion,  and  talking  wits  to  silence. 
This  is  not  the  life  of  a  necessitous  man.  It  has  been 
said  that  after  joining  Lincoln's  Inn  he  wore  his  old 
regimentals,  because  he  could  not  afford  to  buy  a  civil- 


ii6  PLEASANTRIES    OF    ENGLISH 

ian's  dress;  but  in  reply  it  may  be  uri;ed  tb.at  he  did  not 
finally  sever  himself  from  the  army  until  he  had  for 
some  time  been  a  law  student,  and  that  until  the  sale  of 
his  commission,  vanity  and  fashion  alike  prompted  him 
to  wear  the  military  costume.  Anyhow,  it  is  a  fact  that  he 
was  a  most  prosperous  man  when  he  joined  the  Home 
Circuit,  although  Lord  Campbell,  misled  i^y  the  epitaph, 
says,  "  He  comi)oscd  the  follov.ing  lines  to  the  memory 
of  a  beloved  pony  '  Jack,*  who  had  carried  him  on  the 
Home  Circuit  when  he  was  first  called  to  the  bar,  and 
could  not  afford  any  more  sumptuous  mode  of  traveling." 
Erskine's' humanity  towards  animals  is  perpetuated  in 
his  bill  "  For  the  Prevention  of  Cruelty  to  Animals,"  in 
one  of  his  ?peeches  in  which  measure  he  passionately 
observed  :  "As  to  the  tendency  of  barbarous  sports,  of 
any  description  whatsoever,  to  nourish  the  natural  charac- 
teristic of  manliness  n:id  courage — the  only  shadow  of 
argument  I  ever  heard  on  such  occasions — all  I  can  say 
is  this,  that  from  the  mercenary  battles  of  the  lov/est  of 
beasts — human  boxers — up  to  those  of  the  highest  and 
noblest  that  are  tormented  by  man  for  his  degrading 
pastime,  I  enter  this  public  protest  against  such  reason- 
ing. I  never  knew  a  man  remarkable  for  heroic  bearing, 
whose  very  aspect  was  not  lighted  up  by  gentleness  and 
humanity  ;  nor  a  kill-and-cat-hivi  countenance  that  did 
not  cover  the  heart  of  a  bully  or  a  poltroon."  Of  many 
quaint  stories  illustrating  his  fine  tenderness  for  the 
mute  creation,  one  may  be  inserted  in  this  paragraph. 
Having  expostulated  with  a  ruffian  for  violently  beating 
a  feeble  and  emaciated  horse,  he  was  asked  by  the  rascal, 
"  Why !  it  is  my  ov/n,  mayn't  I  use  it  as  I  please  ?  "  The 
man's  tone  heightened  the  insolence  of  his  words,  and 
having  uttered  thern  he  renewed  his  attack  upon  the 
poor  brute.  In  a  trice  Erskine,  who  was  armed  with  a 
stout  cane,  gave  the  offender  a  sound  thrashing.   "  What 


COURTS    AND     LAWYERS.  117 

right  have  you  to  strike  me?"  roared  the  fellow,  beside 
himself  with  rage  and  pain.  "  Pooh,  man  !  "  replied  the 
executioner,  "  my  stick  is  my  own,  mayn't  I  use  it  as  I 
please  ?  " 

Until  he  was  ruined  by  the  acquisition  of  the  seals, 
Erskine  lavished  money  on  his  stables  and  traveling 
equipages.  His  carriages  were  the  best  in  town,  and  his 
horses  roused  the  enthusiasm  of  equestrian  connoisseurs. 
At  the  close  of  the  famous  trials  of  Hardy,  Home  Tooke, 
and  Thelwall, — trials  which  raised  Erskine  to  the  summit 
of  his  fortunes,  and  made  him  the  idol  of  the  people, — 
the  mob  took  the  horses  from  his  carriage,  and  dragged 
him  in  triumph  from  the  Old  Bailey  to  Sergeants'  Inn. 
"  Injured  innocence,"  exclaimed  Erskine,  addressing  the 
crowd  from  a  window  when  he  had  passed  from  his  car- 
riage to  his  house,  "still  obtains  protection  from  a  British 
jury  ;  and  I  am  sure,  in  the  honest  effusions  of  your 
hearts,  you  will  retire  in  peace  and  bless  God."  To  Sir 
John  Scott  and  the  other  counsel  for  the  crown,  who  had 
not  figured  to  advantage  in  these  foolish  prosecutions, 
Erskine's  triumph  was  extremely  irritating.  Scott  and 
Mitford  both  maintained  that  Erskine's  friends  were  the 
scum  of  the  London  rabble,  and  that  he  lowered  the 
dignity  of  his  profession  by  pandering  to  the  passions  of 
the  vulgar.  But  they  were  well  aware  that  Erskine  was 
not  an  unprincipled  demagogue,  and  that  he  had  been 
dragged  in  triumph  to  Chancery  Lane  by  a  mob  of  gen- 
tlemen. "  Erskine,"  wrote  Lord  Eldon  in  his  old  age, 
"  was,  of  course,  extremely  popular.  He  was  received  with 
univcr:;al  plaudits,  and  there  was  nothing  to  disturb  his 
enjoyment  of  this  contrast,  or  to  soften  any  mortifica- 
tion, until  one  evening  the  multitude,  which  had  thought 
proper  to  take  his  horses  from  his  carriage  that  they  might 
draw  him  home,  conceived  among  them  such  a  fancy  for 
a  patri'.it's  horses  as  not  to  return  them,  but  to  keep  them 


ri3  PLEASANTRIES    OF    ENGLISH 

for  their  own  use  and  benefit."  The  malice  of  th.is  story 
is  exquisite. 

Lord  Eldon  was  a  bad  rider  and  an  inexpert  whip. 
Even  William  Henry  Scott,  that  pattern  of  an  admiring 
and  dutiful  son,  used  to  laugh  at  the  great  Chancellor's 
maladroitness  in  all  matters  pertaining  to  horse-flesh. 
With  much  glee  and  agreeable  egotism,  Lord  Campbell 
tells  the  following  story  of  Eldon  and  his  favorite  child  : — 
"  They  were  walking  together  in  Piccadilly  when  a  gentle- 
man, driving  past  them  in  a  smart  cabriolet  (with  a  tiger 
behind),  took  off  his  hat  and  made  a  low  bow.  '  Who 
is  that,'  said  Lord  Eldon,  'who  treats  me  with  respect 
now  that  I  am  nobody?'  'Why,  sir,'  said  William 
Henr)',  '  that  is  Sir  John  Campbell,  the  Whig  Solicitor 
General.'  '  I  wonder  what  they  would  have  said  of  me,' 
cried  the  ex-Chancellor,  '  if  I  had  driven  about  in  a 
cabriolet  when  I  was  Solicitor  General?'  '  I  will  tell  you 
what  they  would  have  said,  dear  father,'  replied  William 
Henry;  '  they  would  have  said,  there  goes  the  greatest 
latvycr  and  worst  zvhip  in  England.'  " 

Clumsy  and  inefficient  in  all  field  sports,  Lord  Eldon 
used  to  laugh  at  his  own  deficiencies  with  respect  to  the 
accomplishments  most  in  vogue  with  the  country  gen- 
tlemen of  his  time.  This  good  humor  was  the  more 
creditable  as  he  enjoyed  playing  the  part  of  a  rural 
squire,  and  took  great  though  bootless  pains  to  qualify 
himself  with  skill  as  well  as  license  to  kill  the  game 
which  he  preserved  on  his  estate  at  considerable  cost. 
As  long  as  he  could  relish  bodily  exercise  he  carried  a 
gun  ;  but  he  never  ventured  to  ride  with  hounds,  after 
reaching  years  of  sound  discretion. 

But  though  he  abstained  from  following  the  hounds, 
he  was  not  slow  to  iV^llow  a  pretty  girl  on  horseback.  A 
mounted  lover,  he  enjoyed  many  a  stolen  interview  with 
Bessie  Surtees  on  the  Shields  high  road, where  the  young 


COURTS    AND    LAWYERS.  119 

lady  was  accustomed  to  ride,  followed  by  an  old 
groom,  who  was  bribed  to  secrecy  by  the  comely  young 
Oxonian. 

Having  in  the  saddle  won  Bessie's  promise  to  be  his 
wife,  he  continued  a  horseman  so  far  that,  during  his 
connection  with  the  Northern  Circuit,  he  steadily  rode 
the  grand  tour.  One  of  his  favorite  anecdotes  referred 
to  his  first  excursion  with  the  circuiteers.  Having  de- 
scribed with  the  imaginative  touches  which  always  char- 
acterized his  personal  reminiscences,  the  efforts  it  cost  him 
to  procure  horses  and  equipment  for  the  journey,  he  used 
to  continue: — "At  last  I  hired  a  horse  for  myself,  and 
borrowed  another  for  an  experienced  youth,  who  was  to 
ride  behind  me  with  my  saddle-bags.  But  I  thought  my 
chance  was  gone  ;  for  having  been  engaged  in  a  discussion 
with  a  traveling  companion,  on  approaching  the  assize- 
town  I  looked  behind,  but  there  was  no  appearance  of  my 
clerk,  and  I  was  obliged  to  ride  back  several  miles,  till  I 
found  him  crying  by  the  roadside,  his  horse  at  some 
distance  from  him,  and  the  saddle-bags  still  farther  off, 
and  it  was  not  without  great  difficulty  that  I  could  ac- 
complish the  reunion,  which  he  had  in  vain  attempted. 
Had  I  failed,  too,  in  this  undertaking,  I  should  never  have 
been  Lord  Chancellor.'  How  could  this  mishap,  under 
any  fairly  probable  circumstances,  have  influenced  his 
professional  career  to  the  extent  suggested  ?  At  worst 
he  might  have  been  too  late  for  a  cause,  and  lost  a  client 
at  the  next  assize-town. 

As  soon  as  carriages  were  generally  adopted,  public 
m_en  deemed  it  prudent,  and  the  wealthy  thought  it 
pleasant,  to  dazzle  and  awe  the  vulgar  with  splendid  and 
pompous  equipages.  As  with  horses,  so  also  with 
chariots,  and  lawyers  maintained  the  dignity  of  their 
order,  and  until  ostentatious  equipages  went  out  of 
fashion  the  chief  dienitaries  of  the  bench  and  the  leadcis 


I20  PLEASANTRIES     OF    ENGLISH 

of  the  bar  rivalled  the  ancient  nobility  in  the  grandeui 
and  state  of  their  progresses. 

Whilst  Dudley  Ryder  (afterwards  Chief  Justice  Ryder) 
was  Attorney  General  he  was  accustomed  to  journej'- 
between  his  house  in  Chancery  Lane,  and  his  villa  at 
Streatham,  in  a  coach-and-six,  to  the  infinite  delight  of 
humble  folk  and  the  approval  of  his  profession.  The 
next  hundred  years  brought  about  notable  changes  in 
social  manners;  and  amongst  them  the  general  disuse 
of  cumbrous  coaches  and  needlessly  expensive  methods 
of  traveling  was  by  no  means  the  least  important.  Con- 
gratulating himself  on  the  altered  taste,  Lord  Campbell 
said,  "  When  I  was  Attorney  General  I  had  the  pleasure 
of  traveling,  when  I  chose,  on  the  top  of  a  stage-coach 
or  in  an  omnibus — in  which  I  met  a  ducal  member  of 
the  cabinet."  The  nobleman  thus  alluded  to  was  the 
Duke  of  Wellington. 

After  Sir  Dudley  Ryder's  sudden  death,  ere  the  order 
for  his  patent  of  nobility  had  been  carried  into  effect,  the 
family  of  the  late  Chief  Justice  had  a  misunderstanding 
with  Sir  Dudley's  successor,  Lord  Mansfield,  concerning 
the  deceased  judge's  state-coach.  The  Chief's  coach 
(like  the  Chancellor's  coach  up  to  the  present  time)  cus- 
tomarily went  with  the  office,  the  incoming  judge  pay- 
ing the  value  of  the  carriage  to  his  predecessor's  estate. 
The  sum  to  be  paid  was  a  matter  of  fresh  agreement,  on 
each  transference  of  a  coach.  Unfortunately,  Sir  Dudley 
Ryder's  son  (the  gentleman  who,  after  a  lapse  of  many 
years,  'a'on  anew  the  rank  to  which  his  father  had  vir- 
tually attained  at  the  moment  of  his  death)  differed  with 
IMurray  as  to  the  value  of  his  father's  vehicle;  and  on 
November  29,  1756,  the  new  Chief  wrote  this  scarcely 
courteous  note  to  the  future  Lord  Harrowby:  "Lord 
?i^ansfield  is  only  solicitous  that  Mr.  Ryder  may  do  what 
is  most   agreeable  to  himself,  and  as  to  the  rest  is  ex- 


1 


COURTS    AND     LAWYERS.  121 

tremely  indifferent.  But  he  would  not,  for  much  more 
than  the  value  of  the  coach,  have  more  than  one  word 
about  such  a  transaction  with  Mr.  Ryder,  for  whom  he 
has  the  greatest  regard,  and  to  whom,  upon  his  father's 
account,  he  would  be  ready  to  show  upon  all  occasions 
every  act  of  civility  and  friendship." 

Unlike  Murray,  who  quitted  his  native  land  on  the 
back  of  the  pony  that  brought  him  to  Westminster 
School,  xA.lexander  Wedderburn  made  the  journey  from 
Edinburgh  to  London  in  a  public  coach,  which,  a  century 
since,  was  deemed  a  marvel  of  expedition.  It  reached 
London  on  the  morning  of  the  sixth  da}'  after  its  de- 
parture frorn  the  northern  capital.  In  1766,  just  about  nine 
years  after  Wedderburn's  hegira,  a  raw  Northumbrian 
lad  entered  the  Newcastle  coach,  at  the  booking-office  on 
Tyne-side,  and  traveled  to  the  English  metropolis  in 
three  nights  and  four  days.  This  conveyance,  instead  of 
making  speed  its  sole  object,  aimed  at  ensuring  the 
safety  of  the  traveler.  "  Sat  cito,  si  sat  bene,"  was  the 
motto  on  its  panels;  and  when  the  Newcastle  stripling 
alighted  at  the  White  Horse,  Fetter  Lane,  Holbom,  his 
elder  brother,  William  Scott  (then  fellow  and  tutor  of  Uni- 
versity College,  and  subsequently  Lord  Stowell)  shook 
him  by  the  hand,  and  congratulated  him  on  a  punctual 
arrival  at  the  antique  hostelry.  The  motto  of  the  coach 
took  hold  of  the  boy's  mind  ;  and  having  made  fun  of  it 
during  that  first  long  journey,  he  moralized  about  it  in 
his  old  age.  One  of  his  fellow-passengers  on  the  road 
was  an  old  Quaker,  who,  when  the  coach  stopped  at  the 
inn  at  Tuxford,  gave  the  maid-servant  sixpence,  remind- 
ing her  that  he  owed  it  to  her,  having  omitted  to  pay  her 
that  sum  two  years  before.  "  Friend,"  asked  the  im- 
pudent boy,  addressing  the  Quaker,  "hast  thou  seen  the 
motto  on  this  coach?"  On  being  answered  in  Ihe  neea- 
tive,  John   Scott  rejoined,  "Then   look  at  it,  for  I  think 


i22  PLEASANTRIES    OE    ENGLISH 

that  giving  her  only  sixpence  now,  for  all   she  did  for 
you  two  years  ago,  is  neither  sat  cito  nor  sat  bene." 

Let  notice  be  here  taken  of  another  eminently  success- 
ful lawyer  from  the  north  country,  John,  Lord  Campbell. 
Comparing  his  own  first  journey  from  Edinburgh  to  Lon- 
don with  Wedderburn's  journey  in  1756,  the  author  of 
the  "Chancellors"  says,  "When  I  first  reached  London, 
I  performed  the  same  journey  in  three  nights  and  two 
days,  Mr.  Palmer's  mail-coaches  being  then  established: 
but  this  swift  traveling  was  considered  dangerous  as  well 
as  wonderful,  and  I  was  gravely  advised  to  stop  at  York, 
'as  seveial  passengers  who  had  gone  through  without 
stopping  had  died  of  apoplexy  from  the  rapidity  of  the 
motion.'  The  whole  distance  can  now  be  accomplished 
with  ease  and  safety  in  twelve  hours,  and  intelligence 
can  be  communicated  from  the  one  capital  to  the  other 
in  as  many  seconds."  The  story  runs  that  young  John 
Campbell,  then  a  raw,  lean,  awkward  Scotch  lad,  on  de- 
scending from  the  stage-coach,  found  himself  in  London 
with  no  more  money  in  his  pocket  than  three  sixpences. 
Having  paid  his  fare  and  tipped  the  coachman,  having 
expended  a  modest  sum  on  food  and  drink  consumed 
upon  the' journey,  he  stood  on  the  London  pavement, 
enduring  the  pangs  of  sharp  hunger,  and  rubbing  the 
three  small  coins  between  his  bony  fingers.  The  town 
had  friends  ready  to  welcome  him  with  cautious  civility; 
but  to  them  he  could  not  look  for  a  replenishment  of 
his  exhausted  finances.  There  was  need  for  prudence. 
Leaving  his  luggage  at  the  booking-office,  the  young 
man  (let  us  say  "  the  lad,"  for  the  time  was  June,  1800. 
and  he  had  not  completed  his  nineteenth  year)  walked 
to  the  office  of  a  daily  newspaper,  on  which  he  had  been 
invited  to  work  as  a  reporter.  "  Was  the  place  kept 
vacant  for  him?  Was  he  secure  of  the  promised  em- 
ployment? Would  he  at  the  close  of  the  following  week 


COURTS    AND    LAWYERS.  123 

receive  from  the  cashier  of  the  office  two  sovereigns?" 
The  answers  were  affirmative;  and  having  received  them 
with  lively  satisfaction,  the  enterprising  youth  ran  to  the 
nearest  cook-shop,  and  devoured  three  sixpenny  plates 
of  beef.  Had  he  not  secured  his  appointment,  he  would 
have  expended  but  a  third  of  his  remaining  fund  on  that 
night's  supper.  So  runs  the  story  of  John  Campbell's 
first  entrance  into  London, — a  story  which  bears  upon 
its  face  so  many  doubtful  features  and  suspicious  pecu- 
liarities, that  this  writer  would  be  sorry  to  pledge  his 
name  for  its  truth. 

From  his  first  appearance  in  town,  Alexander  Wedder- 
burn  lived  with  ostentation.  Until  he  raised  himself  to 
lucrative  practice,  he  indulged  in  all  the  pleasures  and 
pursuits  of  a  fashionable  Templar.  His  chambers  were 
commodious  and  luxuriously  furnished  ;  in  costume  he 
challenged  comparison  with  the  smartest  gallants  of  the 
town  ;  and  writers,  wits,  and  actors,  with  whom  he  con- 
sorted in  taverns  and  coff"ee-rooms,  never  accused  him  of 
stinginess  or  poverty — qualities  in  those  days  too  fre- 
quently attributed  by  popular  prejudice  to  young  Scotch- 
men who  were  neither  indigent  nor  avaricious.  That  he 
resembled  his  countrymen  in  his  dullness  was  the  opinion 
of  detractors  ;  but  no  charge  of  pecuniary  meanness  was 
ever  preferred  against  him.  As  soon  as  clients  came, 
the  ambitious  Scotchman  angled  for  more  with  the  baits 
of  increased  ostentation  and  patrician  style.  On  taking 
office  as  Solicitor  General,  he  spent  a  year's  income  on 
a  service  of  plate,  and  his  horses  were  the  admiration  of 
London.  Legal  dignitaries  had  laid  down  their  coaches- 
and-six;  but  Wedderburn's  chariots,  traveling  carirages, 
and  teams  of  two  or  four  horses,  surpassed  those  of  many 
free-handed  and  opulent  members  of  the  high  nobility. 
Whilst  he  held  the  seals  he  never  drove  through  London 
without  creating  a  stir  by  the  costliness  and  perfect  style 


124  PLEASANTRIES    OF    ENGLISH 

of  his  equipages — consistingC(f  two  coaches  built  exactly 
on  the  same  pattern,  and  each  of  them  drawn  by  four 
superb  steeds.  During  Erskine's  brief  chancellorship 
the  dignity  of  the  law  was  properly  sustained  by  his  stud 
and  household,  and  by  a  grateful  and  liberal  hospitality 
to  the  members  of  his  party  and  his  profession.  But 
Eldon  introduced  a  change  for  the  worse.  Under  his 
supremacy,  the  Chancellor's  private  carriage  was  a  mis- 
erable, battered,  jingling,  ramshackle  coach,  drawn  by 
two  lean,  luckless  brutes,  that  roused  the  derision  of  the 
street-boys.  Frequently  the  Chancellor,  purse  in  hand, 
drove  from  Bedford  Square  or  Hamilton  Place  to  West- 
minster in  a  hackney-coach  ;  and  on  one  occasion  he  ac- 
tually left  in  a  common  hackney-carriage  some  state 
papers  of  high  importance.  Fortunately,  the  driver  was 
either  honest  or  drunk,  and  promptly  restored  the 
documents.  But  for  this  unseemly  economy  Lord  Eldon 
had  a  precedent  in  the  conduct  of  the  penurious  Ken- 
yon,  who  made  weekly  trips  to  his  desolate  farm-house 
at  Richmond  in  an  antique  coach,  known  on  the  Rich- 
m.ond  road  as  the  "  Chief  Justice's  hearse." 

But  enough  of  horses  and  chariots.  In  the  present 
generation  at  the  opening  of  Michaelmas  term  our  legal 
dignitaries  and  queen's  counsel  drive  in  a  long  proces- 
sion from  the  Chancellor's  house  to  Westminster  :  but 
eminent  lawyers  are  no  longer  remarkable  for  distinctive 
equipages,  and  fashion  does  not  require  them  to  lavish 
money  on  horse-dealers  and  coach-makers.  Some  of 
our  foremost  living  judges  and  advocates  are,  however, 
honorably  known  in  hunting  counties. 


I 


Oi^JS" 


IV. 
LAWYERS   AT    HOME. 


CHAPTER     XVIII 


LAW-STUDENT  of  the  present  day  finds  it 
difficult.to  realize  the  brightness  and  domestic  de- 
cency which  characterized  the  Inns  of  Court  in  the  six- 
teenth, seventeenth,  and  eighteenth  centuries.  Under 
existing  circumstances  women  of  character  and  social 
position  avoid  the  gardens  and  terraces  of  Gray's  Inn 
and  the  Temple. 

Attended  by  men,  or  protected  by  circumstances  that 
guard  them  from  impertinence  and  scandal,  gentlevv'omen 
can  without  discomfort  par.s  and  repass  the  walls  of  our 
legal  colleges;  but  in  most  cases  a  lady  enters  them 
under  conditions  that  announce  even  to  casual  passers 
the  object  of  her  visit.  In  her  carriage,  during  the  later 
hours  of  the  day,  a  barrister's  wife  may  drive  down  the 
Middle  Temple  Lane,  or  through  the  gate  of  Lincoln's 
Inn,  and  wait  in  King's  Bench  Walk  or  New  Square, 
until  her  husband,  putting  aside  clients  and  papers, 
joins  her  for  the  homeward  drive.  But  even  thus  placed, 
sitting  in  her  carriage  and  guarded  by  servants,  she 
usually  prefers  to  fence  off  inquisitive  eyes  by  a  bonnet- 
veil,  or  the  blinds  of  her  carriage  windows.  On  Sunday, 
the  wives  and  daughters  of  gentle  fam.ilies  brighten  the 
dingy  passages  of  the  Temple,  and  the  sombre  courts  of 
Lincoln's   Inn:    for   the    musical  services   of  the   grand 


126  PLEASANTRIES     OF    ENGLISH 

church  and  little  chapel  are  amongst  the  religious  enter- 
tainments of  the  town.  To  those  choral  celebrations 
ladies  go.  just  as  they  are  accustomed  to  enter  any  me- 
tropolitan church  ;  and  after  service  they  can  take  a 
turn  in  the  gardens  of  either  Society  without  drawing 
upon  themselves  unpleasant  attention.  So  also,  unat- 
tended by  men,  ladies  are  permitted  to  inspect  the  floral 
exhibitions  with  which  Mr.  Broome,  the  Temple  garden- 
er, annually  entertains  London  sightseers. 

But,  save  on  these  and  a  few  similar  occasions  and 
conditions,  gentlewomen  avoid  an  Inn  of  Court  as  they 
would  a  barrack-yard,  unless  they  have  secured  the 
special  attendance  of  at  least  one  member  of  the  society. 
The  escort  of  a  barrister  or  student  alters  the  case. 
What  barrister,  young  or  old,  cannot  recall  mirthful 
eyes  that,  with  quick  shyness,  have  turned  away  from  his 
momentary  notice,  as  in  answer  to  the  rustling  of  silk, 
or  stirred  by  sympathetic  consciousness  of  woman's 
noiseless  presence,  he  has  raised  his  face  from  a  volume 
of  reports,  and  seen  two  or  three  timorous  girls  peering 
through  the  golden  haze  of  a  London  morning  into  the 
library  of  his  Lm  ?  What  man  thus  drawn  away  for 
thirty  seconds  from  prosaic  toil,  has  not  in  that  half 
minute  remembered  the  faces  of  happy  rural  homes, — 
has  not  recalled  old  days  when  his  young  pulses  beat 
cordial  welcome  to  similar  intruders  upon  the  stillness 
of  the  Bodleian,  or  the  tranquil  seclusion  of  Trinity 
library?  What  occupant  of  dreary  chambers  in  the 
Temple,  reading  this  page,  cannot  look  back  to  a  bright 
day  when  young,  beautiful,  and  pure  as  sanctity,  Lilian, 
or  Kate,  or  Olive,  entered  his  room  radiant  with  smiles, 
delicate  in  attire,  and  musical  with  gleesoine  gossip  about 
country  neighbors  and  the  life  of  a  joyous  home? 

Seldom  does  a  Templar  of  the  present  generation  re- 
ceive so  fair  and  innocent  a  visitor.    To  him  the  presence 


■   COURTS    AND     LAWYERS.  127 

cf  a  gentlewoman  in  his  court  is  an  occasion  for  inge- 
nious conjecture  ;  encountered  on  his  staircase  she  is  a 
cause  of  lively  astonishment.  His  guests  are  men,  more 
or  less  addicted  to  tobacco  ;  his  business  callers  are  so- 
licitors and  their  clerks;  in  his  vestibule  the  masculine 
emissaries  of  tradesmen  may  sometimes  be  found — head- 
waiters  from  neighboring  taverns,  pot-boys  from  the 
'Cock"  and  the  "Rainbow."  A  printer's  devil  may 
from  time  to  time  knock  at  his  door.  But  of  women — 
such  women  as  he  would  care  to  mention  to  his  mother 
and  sisters — he  sees  literally  nothing  in  his  dusty,  ill- 
ordered,  but  not  comfortless  rooms.  He  has  a  laundress, 
one  of  a  class  on  whom  contemporary  satire  has  been 
rather  too  severe. 

Feminine  life  of  another  sort  lurks  in  the  hidden  places 
of  the  law  colleges,  shunning  the  gaze  of  strangers  by 
daylight ;  and  even  when  it  creeps  about  under  cover  of 
night,  trembling  with  a  sense  of  its  own  incurable  shame. 
But  of  this  sad  life,  the  bare  thought  of  which  sends  a 
shivering  through  the  frame  of  every  man  whom  God 
has  blessed  with  a  peaceful  home  and  wholesome  asso- 
ciations, nothing  shall  be  said  in  this  page. 

In  past  time  the  life  of  the  law  colleges  was  very  dif- 
ferent in  this  respect.  When  they  ceased  to  be  ecclesi- 
astics, and  fixed  themselves  in  the  hospices  which  soon 
after  the  reception  of  their  gowned  tenants  were  styled 
Inns  of  Courts,  our  lawyers  took  unto  themselves  wives, 
who  were  both  fair  and  discreet.  And  having  so  made 
women  flesh  of  their  flesh  and  bone  of  their  bone,  they 
hr(night  them  to  homes  within  the  immediate  vicinity  of 
tb.cir  collegiate  walls,  and  sometimes  within  the  walls 
themselves.  Those  who  would  appreciate  the  life  of  tlie 
Inns  in  past  centuries,  and  indeed  in  times  within  the 
memory  of  living  men,  should  bear  this  in  mind.  When 
he  was  not  on  circuit,  many  a  counselor  learned  in  the 


128  r  LEA  SAN  TRIES     OF    ENGLISH 

hnv  found  the  ])leasurc,s  not  less  than  the  business  of  his 
existence  witliin  tlie  bounds  of  his  "honorable  society." 
In  the  tullest  sense  tjf  tlie  words  he  took  his  ease  in  his 
Inn  ;  besides  beiny  his  workshop,  where  cHents  flocked 
to  him  for  advice,  it  was«  his  club,  his  pLace  of  pastime, 
and  the  shrine  of  his  domestic  affections.  In  this  gen- 
eration a  successful  Chancery  barrister,  or  Equity  drafts- 
man, looks  upon  Lincoln's  Inn  merely  as  a  place  of 
business,  where  at  a  prodigious  rent  he  holds  a  set  of 
rooms  in  which  he  labors  over  cases,  and  satisfies  the 
demands  of  clients  and  pupils.  A  century  or  two  cen- 
turies since  the  case  was  often  widely  different.  The 
rising  barrister  brought  his  bride  in  triumph  to  his 
"  chambers,"  and  in  them  she  received  the  friends  who 
hurried  to  congratulate  her  on  her  new  honors.  In  those 
rooms  she  dispensed  graceful  hospitality,  and  watched 
her  husband's  toils.  The  elder  of  her  children  first  saw 
the  light  in  those  narrow  quarters  ;  and  frequently  the 
lawyer  over  his  papers  was  disturbed  by  the  uproar  of 
his  heir  in  an  adjoining  room. 

Young  wives,  the  mistresses  of  roomy  houses  in  the 
western  quarters  of  town,  shudder  as  they  imagine  the 
discomforts  which  these  young  wives  of  other  days  must 
have  endured.  "What!  live  in  chambers?"  they  exclaim 
with  astonishment  and  horror,  recalling  the  smaliness  and 
cheerless  aspect  of  their  husbands'  business  chambers. 
But  past  usages  must  not  be  hastily  condemned, — allow- 
ance must  be  made  for  the  fact  that  our  ancestors  set  no 
very  high  price  on  the  luxuries  of  elbow-room  and  breatii- 
ing-room.  Families  in  opulent  circumstances  were  wont 
to  dwell  happil}',  and  receive  whole  regiments  of  iovial 
visitors  in  little  houses  nigh  the  Strand  and  Fleet  Street, 
Ludgate  Hill  and  Cheapside  ; — houses  hidden  in  narrow 
passages  and  sombre  courts — houses,  compared  with 
which  the  lov.liest  residences  in  a  "  iienteel  suburb  "  of  our 


I 


COURTS    AND     LAWYERS.  129 

own  time  would  appear  capacious  mansions.  Moreover,  it 
must  be  borne  in  mind  tliat  tlie  n-;arried  barrister,  living  , 
a  century  since  with  his  wife  in  chambers — either  within 
or  hard-by  an  Inn  of  Court — was,  at  a  comparatively 
low  rent,  the  occupant  of  far  more  ample  quarters  than 
those  for  which  a  working  barrister  now-a-days  pays  a 
preposterous  sum.  Such  a  man  was  tenant  of  a  "  set  of 
rooms"  (several  rooms,  although  called  "  a  chamber") 
which,  under  the  present  system,  accommodates  a  small 
colony  of  industrious  "juniors,"  with  one  office  and  a 
clerk's  office  attached.  Married  ladies,  who  have  lived  in 
Paris  or  Vienna,  in  the  "  old  town"  of  Edinburgh,  or 
Victoria  Street,  Westminster,  need  no  assurance  that  life 
"  on  a  flat"  is  not  an  altogether  deplorable  state  of  exist- 
ence. The  young  couple  in  chambers  had  ?ix  rooms  at 
their  disposal, — a  chamber  for  business,  a  parlor,  not  un- 
frcquently  a  drawing-room,  and  a  trim,  compact  little 
kitchen.  Sometimes  they  had  two  "  sets  of  rooms,"  one 
above  another;  in  which  case  the  young  wife  could  have 
her  bridesmaids  to  stay  with  her,  or  could  offer  a  bed  to 
a  friend  from  the  country.  Occasionally  during  the  last 
fifty  years  of  the  last  century,  they  were  so  fortunate  as 
to  get  possession  of  a  small  detached  house,  originally 
built  by  a  nervous  bencher,  who  disliked  the  sound  of 
footsteps  on  the  stairs  outside  his  door.  Time  was  when 
the  Inns  comprised  several  detached  houses,  some  of 
them  snug  dwellings,  and  others  imposing  mansions, 
wherein  great  dignitaries  lived  with  proper  ostentation. 
Most  of  them  have  been  pulled  down,  and  their  sites 
covered  with  collegiate  "  buildings  ;"  but  a  few  of  them 
still  remain,  the  grand  piles  having  long  since  been  par- 
titioned off  into  chamibers,  and  the  little  houses  striking 
the  eye  as  quaint,  misplaced,  insignificant  blocks  of  human 
habitation.  Under  the  trees  of  Gray's  Inn  Gardens  mas- 
be  seen  two  modest  tenements,  each  of  them  comprising 

I— Q. 


ijo  PLEASANTRIES    OE    ENGLISH 

some  six  or  eight  rooms  and  a  vestibule.  At  the  present 
time  they  are  occupied  as  offices  by  legal  practitioners, 
and  many  a  day  has  passed  since  womanly  taste  decorated 
their  vvindov/s  with  flowers  and  muslin  curtains;  but  a 
certain  venerable  gentleman,  to  whom  the  writer  of  this 
page  is  indebted  for  much  information  about  the  lawyers 
of  the  last  century,  can  remember  when  each  of  those 
cottages  was  inhabited  by  a  l^arrister,  his  young  wife,  and 
three  or  four  lovely  children.     Into  some  such  a  house 
near  Lincoln's  Inn  a  young  lawyer  who  was  destined  to 
hold  the  seals  for  many  years,  and  be  also  the  father  of  a 
Lord  Chancellor,  married  in  the  year  of  our  Lord  1718. 
His   name  was    Philip  Yorke :    and   though   he  was   of 
humble  birth,  he  had  made  such  a  figure  in  his  profession 
that  great  men's  doers  were  open  to  him.    He  was  asked 
to  dinner  by  learned  judges,  and  invited  to  balls  by  their 
ladies.     In  Chancery  Lane,  at  the  house  of  Sir  Joseph 
Jekyll,  Master  of  the  Rolls,  he  met  Mrs.  Lygon,  a  beau- 
teous  and  wealthy  widow,  whose    father  was  a  country 
squire,  and  whose  mother  was  the  sister  of  the  great  Lord 
Somers.      In  fact,  she  was  a  lady  of  such  birth,  position, 
and  jointure,  that  the  young  lawyer — rising  man  though 
he  was — seemed  a  poor  match  for  her.    The  lady's  family 
thought  so  :  and   if  Sir  Joseph  Jekyll  had  not  cordially 
supported  the  suitor  with  a  letter  of  recommendation, 
her  father  would  have  rejected  him  as  a  man  too  humble 
in  rank  and  fortune.      Having  won  the  lady  and  married 
her,  Mr.  Philip  Yorke  brought  her  home  to  a  "very  small 
house"  near  Lincoln's  Inn  ;  and  in  that  lowly  dwelling, 
the  ground-floor  of  which  was  the  barrister's  office,  they 
spent  the  first  years  of  their  wedded  life.   What  would  be 
said  of  the  rising  barrister  who,  now-a-days,  on  his  mar- 
riage with  a  rich  scjuire's  rich  daughter  and  a  peer's  niece, 
should    propose  to  set   up  his  household  gods  in  a  tiny 
r.rib    just    outside   Lincoln's    Inn  gate,    and  to   use   the 


1 


COURTS    AND    LAWYERS.  131 

pnrlor  of  the  "very  small  house"  for  professional  pur- 
poses? Far  from  being  guilty  of  unseemly  parsimony 
in  this  arrangement,  Philip  Yorke  paid  proper  considera- 
ti'.in  to  his  wife's  social  advantages  in  taking  her  to  a 
separate  house.  His  contemporaries  amongst  the  junior 
b.ir  would  have  felt  no  astonishment  if  he  had  fitted  up 
a  set  of  chambers  for  his  wealthy  and  well-descended 
bride.  Not  merely  in  his  day,  but  for  long  years  after- 
wards, lawyers  of  gentle  birth  and  comfortable  means, 
who  married  women  scarcely  if  at  all  inferior  to  Mrs. 
Yorke  in  social  condition,  lived  upon  the  flats  of  Lin- 
coln's Inn  and  the  Temple. 


CHAPTER       XIX. 

HATEVER  its  drawbacks,  the  system  which  en- 
couraged the  young  barrister  to  marry  on  a 
modest  income,  and  make  his  wife  "happy  in  chambers," 
must  have  had  special  advantages.  In  their  Inn  the 
husband  was  near  every  source  of  diversion  for  which  he 
greatly  cared,  and  the  wife  was  surrounded  by  the 
friends  of  either  sex  in  whose  society  he  took  most  plea- 
sure— friends  who,  like  herself,  "  lived  in  the  Inn,"  or  in 
one  of  the  immediate  adjacent  streets.  In  "hall"  he 
dined  and  drank  wine  with  his  professional  compeers 
and  the  wits  of  the  bar:  the  "library"  supplied  him  not 
only  with  the  law  books,  but  with  poems  and  dramas, 
with  merry  trifles  written  for  the  stage,  and  satires  fresh 
from  the  Row  ;  "  the  chapel  " — or  if  he  were  a  Templar, 
"  tiie  church  " — was  his  habitual  place  of  worship,  where 
tlicre  were  sittings  for  his  wife  and  children  as  well  as 
fur  liimsclf;  on  the  walks  and  under  the  shady  trees  of 
"  the  garden,"  he  sauntered  with  his  own  or,  better  still. 


132  PLEASANTRIES     OE    ENGLISH 

a  friend's  wife,  criticising  the  passers,  describing  the  new 
comedy,  or  talking  over  the  last  ball  given  by  a  judge's 
lady.  At  times  those  gardens  were  pervaded  by  the 
calm  of  collegiate  seclusion,  but  on  "open  days"  they 
were  brisk  with  life.  The  women  and  children  of  the 
legal  colony  walked  in  them  daily;  the  ladies  attired  in 
their  newest  fashions,  and  the  children  running  with 
musical  riot  over  lawns  and  paths.  Nor  were  the  grounds 
mere  places  of  resort  for  lawyers  and  their  families. 
Taking  rank  amongst  the  pleasant  places  of  the  me- 
tropolis, they  attracted,  on  "open  days,"  crowds  from 
every  quarter  of  the  town — ladies  and  gallants  from 
Soho  Square  and  St.  James's  Street,  from  Whitehall 
and  Westminster;  sightseers  from  the  country  and  gor- 
geousalderwomanic  dowagers  from  Cheapside.  From  the 
days  of  Elizabeth  till  the  middle,  indeed  till  the  close, 
of  the  eighteenth  century  the  ornamental  grounds  of  the 
four  great  In-ns  were  places  of  fashionable  promenade, 
where  the  rank  and  talent  and  beauty  of  the  town  as- 
sembled for  display  and  exercise,  even  as  in  our  own 
time  they  assembled  (less  universally)  in  Hyde  Park  and 
Kensington  Gardens. 

Wlien  ladies  and  children  had  withdrawn,  the  quietude 
of  the  gardens  lured  from  their  chambers  scholars  and 
poets,  who  under  murmuring  branches  pondered  the  re- 
sults of  past  study,  or  planned  new  works.  Ben  Jonson 
was  accustomed  to  saunter  beneath  the  elms  of  Lincoln's 
Inn  ;  and  Steele — alike  on  "  open  "  and  "  close  "  days 
used  to  frequent  the  gardens  of  the  same  society.  "  I 
went,"  he  writes  in  May,  1709,  "in  Lincoln's  Inn  Walks, 
and  having  taken  a  round  or  two,  I  sat  down,  according 
to  the  allowed  familiarity  of  these  places,  on  a  bench." 
In  the  following  Novem'ocr  he  alludes  to  the  privilege 
that  he  enjoyed  of  walking  there  as  "a  favor  that  is 
indulged     me    by   several    of    the    benchers,    who    are 


COURTS    AND     LAWYERS.  133 

very  intimate   friends,   and  grown   old  in   the  neighbor- 
hood." 

But  though  on  certain  days,  and  under  fixed  regula- 
tions, the  outside  public  were  admitted  to  the  college 
gardens,  the  assemblages  were  always  pervaded  by  the 
tone  and  humor  of  the  law.  The  courtiers  and  grand 
ladies  from  "  the  west  "  felt  themselves  the  guests  of  the 
lawyers;  and  the  humbler  folk,  who  by  special  grant  had 
acquired  the  privilege  of  entry,  or  whose  decent  attire 
and  aspect  satisfied  the  janitors  of  their  respectability, 
moved  about  with  watchfulness  and  gravity,  surveying 
the  counselors  and  their  ladies  with  admiring  eyes,  and 
extolling  the  benchers  whose  benevolence  permitted 
simple  tradespeople  to  take  the  air  side  by  side  with  "  the 
quality."  In  1736,  James  Ralph,  in  his  "  New  Critical 
Review  of  the  Publick  Buildings,"  wrote  about  the  square 
and  gardens  of  Lincoln's  Inn  in  a  manner  which  testifies 
to  the  respectful  gratitude  of  the  public  for  the  liberality 
which  permitted  all  outwardly  decent  persons  to  walk  in 
the  grounds.  "  I  may  safely  add,"  he  says,  "  that  no  area 
anywhere  is  kept  in  better  order,  either  for  cleanliness 
and  beauty  by  day,  or  illumination  by  night  ;  the  foun- 
tain in  the  middle  is  a  very  pretty  decoration,  and  if  it 
was  still  kept  playing,  as  it  was  some  years  ago  'twould 
preserve  its  name  with  more  propriety."  In  his  remarks 
on  the  chapel  the  guide  observes,  "The  raising  this 
chapel  on  pillars  affords  a  pleasing,  melancholy  walk  un- 
derneath, and  by  night,  particularly,  when  illuminated 
by  the  lamps,  it  has  an  effect  that  may  be  felt,  but  not 
described."  Of  the  gardens  Mr.  Ralph  could  not  speak 
in  high  praise,  for  they  were  ill-arranged  and  not  so 
carefully  kept  as  the  square  ;  but  he  observes,  "they  are 
convenient;  and  considering  their  situation  cannot  be 
esteemed  too  much.  There  is  something  hospitable 
in    laying    them    open    to    public    use ;     and    while    we 


134  PLEASANTRIES     OF    ENGLISH 

share  in  their  pleasures,  we  have  no  title  to  arraign  their 
taste." 

Tlie  chief  attraction  of  Lincohi's  Inn  gardens,  apart 
from  its  beautiful  trees,  was  for  many  years  the  terrace 
overlooking  "  the  Fields,"  which  was  made  temp.  Car.  II. 
at  the  cost  of  nearly  ^lOOO.  Dugdale,  speaking  of  tliC 
recent  improvements  of  the  Inn,  says,  "And  the  last  was 
the  enlargement  of  their  garden,  beautifying  with  a  large 
tarras  wall  on  the  west  side  thereof,  and  raising  the  wall 
higher  towards  Lincoln's  Inne  Fields.  Which  was  done 
in  An.  1663  (15  Car.  II.),  the  charge  thereof  amounting 
to  a  little  less  than  a  thousand  pounds,  by  reason  that 
the  levelling  of  most  part  of  the  ground,  and  raising  the 
tarras,  required  such  great  labor."  A  portion  of  this  ter- 
race, and  some  of  the  old  trees  were  destroyed  to  make 
room  for  the  new  dining-hall. 

The  old  system  supplied  the  barrister  with  other 
sources  of  recreation.  Within  a  stone's  throw  of  his  res- 
idence was  the  hotel  where  his  club  had  its  weekly  meet- 
ing. Either  in  hall,  or  with  his  family,  or  at  a  tavern 
near  "  the  courts,"  it  was  his  use,  until  a  comparatively 
recent  date,  to  dine  in  the  middle  of  the  day,  and  work 
again  after  the  meal.  Courts  sate  after  dinner  as  well  as 
before  ;  and  it  was  observable  that  counselors  spoke  far 
better  when  they  were  full  of  wine  and  venison  than 
when  they  stated  the  case  in  the  earlier  part  of  the  day. 
But  in  the  evening  the  system  told  especially  in  the  bar- 
rister's favor.  All  his  many  friends  lying  within  a  small 
circle  he  had  an  abundance  of  congenial  society.  Brother- 
circuiteers  came  to  his  wife's  drawing-room  for  tea  and 
chat,  coffee  and  cards.  Tliere  was  a  substantial  supper 
at  half-past  eight  or  nine  for  such  guests  (supper  cooked 
in  my  lady's  little  kitchen,  or  supplied  by  the  "Society's 
cook"j;  and  the  smoking  dishes  were  accompanied  by 
foaming  tankards  of  ale  or  porter,  and  followed   by  su- 


COURTS    AND    LAWYERS.  135 

perb  and  richly  aromatic  bowls  of  punch.  On  occasions 
when  the  learned  man  worked  hard  and  shut  out  visitors 
by  sporting  his  oak,  he  enjoyed  privacy  as  unbroken 
and  complete  as  that  of  any  library  in  Kensington  or  Ty- 
burnia.  If  friends  stayed  away,  and  he  wished  for  diver- 
sion, he  could  run  into  the  chambers  of  his  old  college- 
chums,  or  with  his  w^ife's  gracious  permission  could  spend 
an  hour  at  Chatelin's  or  Nando's,  or  any  other  coffee- 
house in  vogue  with  members  of  his  profession.  During 
festive  seasons,  when  the  judges'  and  leaders'  ladies 
gave  their  grand  balls,  the  young  couple  needed  no 
carriage  for  visiting  purposes.  From  Gray's  Inn  to  the 
Temple  they  walked — if  the  weather  was  fine.  When 
it  rained  they  hailed  a  hackney-coach,  or  my  lady  was 
popped  into  a  sedan  and  carried  by  running  bearers  to 
the  frolic  of  the  hour. 

Of  course  the  notes  of  the  preceding  paragraphs  of 
this  chapter  are  but  suggestions  as  to  the  mode  in  which 
the  artistic  reader  must  call  up  the  life  of  the  old  law- 
yers. Encouraging  him  to  realize  the  manners  and 
usages  of  several  centuries,  not  of  a  single  generation, 
they  do  not  attempt  to  entertain  the  student  with  de- 
tails. It  is  needless  to  say  that  the  young  couple  did 
not  use  hackney-coaches  in  times  prior  to  the  introduc- 
tion of  those  serviceable  vehicles,  and  that  until  sedans 
were  invented  my  lady  never  used  them. 

It  is  possible,  indeed  it  is  certain,  that  married  ladies 
living  in  chambers  occasionally  had  for  neighbors  on  the 
^ame  staircase  v/omen  whom  they  regarded  with  ab- 
horrence. Sometimes  it  happened  that  a  dissolute  bar- 
rister introduced  to  his  rooms  a  woman  more  beautiful 
than  virtuous,  whom  he  had  not  niarried,  though  he 
called  her  his  wife.  People  can  wo  more  choose  theii 
nciglibors  in  a  house  broken  up  into  sets  of  chambers, 
than  they  can   choose  them  in  a  street.      But  the  cases 


136  PLEASANTRIES     OF    ENGLISH 

where  ladies  wore  daily  liable  to  meet  an  offensive 
naii^hbor  on  their  staircase  were  comparatively  rare ; 
and  when  the  annoyance  actually  occurred,  the  dis- 
cipline of  the  Inn  afforded  a  remedy. 

Uncleanness  too  often  lurked  within  the  camp,  but  it 
veiled  its  face;  and  though  in  rare  cases  the  error  and 
sin  of  a  powerful  lawyer  may  have  been  notorious,  the 
peccant  man  was  careful  to  surround  himself  with  such 
an  appearance  of  respectability  that  society  could  easily 
feign  ignorance  of  his  offense.  An  Elizabethan  distich — - 
fairiiliar  to  all  barristers,  but  too  rudely  worded  for  in- 
sertion in  this  page — informs  us  that  in  the  sixteenth 
century  Gray's  Inn  had  an  unenviable  notoriety  amongst 
legal  hospices  for  the  shamelessness  of  its  female  inmates. 
But  the  pungent  lines  must  be  regarded  as  a  satire  aimed 
at  certain  exceptional  members,  rather  than  as  a  vivacious 
picture  of  the  general  tone  of  morals  in  the  society. 
Anyhow  the  fact  that  Gray's  Inn^  was  alone  designated 
as  a  home  for  infamy — whilst  the  Inner  Temple  was 
pointed  to  as  the  hospice  most  popular  with  rich  men, 
the  Middle  Temple  as  the  society  frequented  by  Tem- 
plars of  narrow  means,  and  Lincoln's  Inn  as  the  abode 
of  gentlemen — is,  of  itself,  a  proof  that  the  prevailing 
manners  of  the  last  three  institutions  were  outwardly 
decorous.  Under  the  least  favorable  circumstances,  a 
barrister's  wife  living  in  chambers,  within  or  near 
Lincoln's  Inn,  or  the  Temple,  during  Charles  II. 's 
reign,   fared  as  well   in    this  respect  as  she  would  have 

'  The  scandalous  state  of  Gray's  Inn  at  this  period  is  shown  by  the  foL 
lowing  passage  in  Dugdale's  "  Origines." — "  In  23  Eliz.  (30  Jan.)  there  was 
sn  order  made  that  no  laundress,  nor  women  called  Victuallers,  should 
thenceforth  come  into  the  gentlemen's  chambers  of  this  society,  until  they 
were  full  forty  years  of  age,  and  not  send  their  maid-servants,  of  what  age 
soever,  into  the  said  gentlemen's  chambers,  upon  penalty,  for  the  first  of- 
fense of  him  that  should  admit  of  any  such,  to  be  put  out  of  Commons  : 
and  for  the  second,  to  be  expelled  the  House."  The  stringency  and  se- 
verity of  this  order  show  a  determination  on  the  part  of  the  authorities  to 
cuie  the  evil. 


COURl^S    AND    LAWYERS.  137 

done  had  Fortune  made  her  a  lady-in-waiting  at  White- 
hall. 

A  good  story  is  told  of  certain  visits  paid  to  William 
Murray's  chambers  at  Mo.  5,  King's  Bench  Walk,  Temple, 
in  the  year  VoS-  I^orn  in  1705,  Murray  was  still  a  young 
man,  when  in  1738  he  made  his  brilliant  speech  in  be- 
half of  Colonel  Sloper,  against  whom  Colley  Gibber's 
rascally  son  had  brought  an  action  {ox  criui.  con.  with  his 
wife — the  lovely  actress  v/ho  was  the  rival  of  Mrs.  Clive. 
Amongst  the  many  clients  who  were  drawn  to  Murray  by 
that  speech.  Sarah,  Duches:^  of  Marlborough,  was  neither 
the  least  powerful  nor  the  least  distinguished.  Her  grace 
bep-an  by  sending  the  rising  advocate  a  general  retainer, 
with  a  fee  of  a  thousand  guineas;-  of  which  sum  he  ac- 
cepted only  the  two-hundredth  part,  explaining  to  the 
astonished  duchess  that  "  the  professional  fee,  v/ith  a 
general  retainer,  could  neither  be  less  nor  more  than  five 
guineas."  If  Murray  had  accepted  the  whole  sum  he 
would  not  have  been  overpaid  for  his  trouble  ;  for  her 
grace  persecuted  him  with  calls  at  \v.o:X  unseasonable 
hours.  On  one  occasion,  returning  to  his  chambers  after 
"drinking  champagne  with  the  wit:-,"  he  found  the 
duchess's  carriage  and  attendants  on  King's  Bench. 
Walk.  A  numerous  crowd  of  footmen  and  link-bearers 
surrounded  the  coach  ;  and  when  the  barrister  entered 
his  chambers  he  encountere'd  the  mistress  of  that  army 
of  lackeys.  '•  Young  man,"  exclaimeci  the  grand-  lady, 
eyeing  the  future  Lord  Mansfield  with  a  look  of  warsa 
displeasure,  "  if  you  mean  to  rise  in  the  world,  you  mu:it 
not  sup  out."  On  a  subsequent  night  Sarah  of  Marl- 
borough called  without  appointment  at  the  same  cham- 
bers, and  waited  till  past  midnight  in  the  hope  that  she 
would  see  the  lawyer  ere  she  went  to  bed.  But  Murray 
Dei ng  ;it  an  unusually  late  supper-party,  did  not  return 
till  her  grace  had  departed  in  an  overpowering  rage.    "  I 


1,58  PLEASANTRIES     OF    ENGLISH 

could  not  make  out,  sir,  who  she  was,"  said  Murray's 
clerk,  dcscribiiiLj  her  grace's  appearance  and  manner, 
"  for  she  would  not  tell  me  her  name;  but  she  sxvore  so 
dreadfully  that  I  am  sure  she  must  be  a  lady  of  quality ^ 
Perhaps  the  Inns  of  Court  may  still  shelter  a  few  mar- 
ried ladies,  who  cither  from  love  of  old-world  ways,  or 
from  stern  necessity,  consent  to  dwell  in  their  husbands' 
chambers.  If  such  ladies  can  at  the  present  time  be 
found,  the  writer  of  this  page  would  look  for  them  in 
Gray's  Inn — that  straggling  caravansary  for  the  reception 
of  money-lenders,  Bohemians,  and  eccentric  gentlemen 
— rather  than  in  the  other  three  Inns  of  Court,  which 
have  undoubtedly  quite  lost  their  old  population  of 
lady-residents.  But  from  those  three  hospices  the  last 
of  the  ladies  must  have  retreated  at  a  comparatively  re- 
cent date.  Fifteen  years  since,  when  the  writer  of  this 
book  was  a  beardless  under-graduate,  he  had  the  honor 
of  knowing  some  married  ladies,  of  good  family  and  un- 
blemished repute,  who  lived  with  their  husbands  in  the 
Middle  Temple.  One  of  these  ladies — the  daughter  of 
a  county  magistrate,  the  sister  of  a  distinguished  classic 
scholar — was  the  wife  of  a  common  law  barrister  who 
nov/ holds  a  judicial  appointment  in  one  of  our  colonies. 
The  women  of  her  old  home  circle  occasionally  called 
on  this  young  wife:  but  as  they  could  not  reach  her 
q'.:arters  in  Sycamore  Court  without  attracting  much 
unpleasant  observation,  their  visits  were  not  frequent. 
I.iving  in  a  barrack  of  unwed  men,  that  charming  girl 
'vvas  surrounded  by  honest  fellows  who  would  have  re- 
sented as  an  insult  to  themselves  an  impertinence  offered 
to  her.  Still  her  life  was  abnormal,  unnatural,  dele- 
terious ;  it  was  felt  by  all  who  cared  for  her  that  she 
ought  not  to  be  where  she  vvas  ;  and  when  an  appoint- 
ment with  a  good  income  in  a  healthy  and  thriving  col- 
ony was  offered  to  her  husband,  all  who   knew  her,  and 


COURTS    AND    LAWYERS.  139 

many  who  had  never  spoken  to  her,  rejoiced  at  the  in- 
telligence. At  the  present  time,  in  the  far  distant  coun- 
try which  looks  up  to  her  as  a  personage  of  importance, 
this  lady — not  less  exemplary  as  wife  and  mother  than 
brilliant  as  a  woman  of  society — takes  pleasure  in  re- 
calling the  days  when  she  was  a  prisoner  in  the  Temple. 

One  of  the  last  cases  of  married  life  in  the  Ternple, 
that  came  before  the  public  notice,  was  that  of  a  barris- 
ter and  his  wife  who  incurred  obloquy  and  punishment 
for  their  brutal  conduct  to  a  poor  servant  girl.  No  one 
would  thank  the  writer  for  republishing  the  details  of 
that  nauseous  illustration  of  the  degradation  to  which 
it  is  possible  for  a  gentleman  and  scholar  to  sink.  But, 
however  revolting,  the  case  is  not  without  interest  for  the 
reader  who  is  curious  about  the  social  life  of  the  Temple. 

The  portion  of  the  Temple  in  which  the  old-world 
family  life  of  the  Inns  held  out  the  longest,  is  a  clump 
of  commodious  houses  lying  between  the  Middle  Tem- 
ple Garden  and  Essex  Street,  Strand.  Having  their  en- 
trance-doors in  Essex  Street,  these  houses  are,  in  fact, 
as  private  as  the  residences  of  any  London  quarter.  The 
noise  of  the  Strand  reaches  them,  but  their  occupants 
are  as  secure  from  the  impertinent  gaze  or  unwelcome 
familiarities  of  law  students  and  barristers'  clerks,  as 
th.:v  would  be  if  they  lived  at  St.  John's  Wood.  In 
Essex  Street,  on  the  eastern  side,  the  legal  families 
maintained  their  ground  almost  till  yesterday.  Fifteen 
years  since  the  writer  of  the  page  used  to  be  invited  to 
dinners  and  dances  in  that  street — dinners  and  dances 
uhich  were  attended  by  prosperous  gentlefolk  from  the 
West  End  of  the  town.  At  that  time  he  often  waltzed 
in  a  drawing-room,  the  windows  of  which  looked  upon 
the  spray  of  the  fountain— at  which  Ruth  Pinch  loved 
to  gaze  when  its  jet  resembled  a  wagoner's  whip.  How 
all  old  and  precious  things  pass  away  !     The  dear  old 


140  PLEASANTRIES     OE    ENGLESII 

"wagoner's  whip"  has  been  replaced  by  a  pert,  perky 
squirt  that  will  never  stir  the  heart  or  brain  of  a  future 
Ruth. 


CHAPTER     XX. 


HILST  the  great  body  of  lawyers  dwelt  in  or 
hard  by  the  Inns.  tl;C  dignitaries  of  the  judicial 
bench,  and  the  more  eminent  members  of  the  bar,  had 
suitable  palaces  or  mansions  at  greater  or  less  distances 
from  the  legal  hostelries.  The  ecclesiastical  Chancellors 
usualh'  enjoyed  episcopal  or  archiepiscopal  rank,  and 
lived  in  London  palaces  attached  to  their  sees  or  provin- 
ces. During  his  tenure  of  the  seals,  Morton.  Bishop  of 
Ely,  years  before  he  succeeded  to  the  archbishopric  of 
Canterbury,  and  received  the  honors  of  the  Cardinalate, 
grew  strawberries  in  his  garden  on  Holborn  Hill,  and 
lived  in  the  palace  surrounded  by  that  garden.  As  Arch- 
bishop of  Canterbury,  Chancellor  Warham  maintained 
at  Lambeth  Palace  the  imposing  state  commemorated 
by  Erasmus. 

When  Wolsey  made  his  first  progress  to  the  Court  of 
Chancery  in  Westminster  Hall,  a  progress  already  alluded 
to  in  these  pages,  he  started  from  the  archiepiscopal 
palace,  York  House  or  Palace — an  official  residence  sold 
by  the  cardinal  to  Henry  VHL  some  years  later;  and 
when  the  same  superb  ecclesiastic,  towards  the  close 
of  his  career,  went  on  the  memorable  embassy  to 
France,  he  set  out  from  his  Palace  at  Westminster, 
"  passing  through  all  London  over  London  Bridge,  having 
before  him  of  gentlemen  a  great  number,  three  in  rank 
in  black  velvet  livery  coats,  and  the  most  of  them  with 
great  chains  of  gold  about  their  necks." 


COURTS    AND     LAWYERS.  141 

At  later  dates  Gardyner,  whilst  he  held  the  seals,  kept 
his  numerous  household  at  Winchester  House  in  South- 
wark ;  and  Williams,  the  last  clerical  Lord  Keeper,  lived 
at  the  Deanery,  Westminster. 

The  lay  Chancellors  also  maintained  costly  and  pom- 
pous establishments,  apart  from  the  Inns  of  Court.  Sir 
Thomas  More's  house  stood  in  the  country,  flanked  by  a 
garden  and  farm,  in  the  cultivation  of  which  ground  the 
Chancellor  found  one  of  his  chief  sources  of  amusement. 
In  Aldgate,  Lord  Chancellor  Audley  built  his  town 
mansion,  on  the  site  of  the  Priory  of  the  Canons  of  the 
Holy  Trinity  of  Christ  Church.  Wriothesley  dwelt  in 
Holborn  at  the  height  of  his  unsteady  fortunes,  and  at  the 
time  of  his  death.  The  infamous  but  singularly  lucky  Rich 
lived  in  Great  St.  Bartholomew's  and  from  his  mansion 
there  wrote  to  the  Duke  of  Northumberland,  imploring 
that  messengers  might  be  sent  to  him  to  relieve  him  of 
the  perilous  trust  of  the  Great  Seal.  Christopher  Hatton 
wrested  from  the  see  of  Ely  the  site  of  Holborn,  whereon 
he  built  his  magnificent  palace.  The  reluctance  with 
which  the  Bishop  of  Ely  surrendered  the  ground,  and 
the  imperious  letter  by  which  Elizabeth  compelled  the 
prelate  to  comply  with  the  wish  of  her  favorite  courtier, 
form  one  of  the  humorous  episodes  of  that  queen's  reign. 
Hatton  House  rose  over  the  soil  which  had  yielded 
stra\\berries  to  Morton  ;  and  of  that  house — where  the 
dancing  Chancellor  received  Elizabeth  as  a  visitor,  and 
in  which  he  died  of  "  diabetes  and  grief  of  mind  " — the 
memory  is  preserved  by  Hatton  Garden,  the  name  of 
the  street  vvhere  some  of  our  wealthiest  jewelers  and 
gold  assayers  have  places  of  business. 

Public  convenience  had  long  suggested  the  expediency 
of  establishing  a  permanent  residence  for  the  Chancellors 
s'f  F.iigland,  when  either  by  successive  expressions  of  the 
roj-al  will,  or  by  the  individual  choice  of  several   succes- 


143  PLEASANTRIES    OE    EXGUSH 

sive  holders  of  tiie  Clavis  Rcgni,  a  noble  place  on  the 
northern  bank  of  the  Thames  came  to  be  regarded  as  the 
proper  domicile  for  the  Great  Seal.  York  House,  mem- 
orable as  the  birthplace  of  Francis  Bacon,  and  the  scene 
of  his  brightest  social  splendor,  demands  a  brief  notice. 
Wolsey's  "  York  House "  or  Whitehall  having  passed 
from  the  province  of  York  to  the  crown,  Nicholas  Heath, 
Archbishop  of  York,  estabished  himself  in  another  York 
House  on  a  site  lying  between  the  Strand  and  the  river. 
In  this  palace  (formerly  leased  to  the  see  of  Norwich  as 
a  bishop'  Inn,  and  subsequently  conferred  on  Charles 
Brandon  by  Henry  VIII.)  Heath  resided  during  his 
chancellorship  ;  and  when,  in  consequence  of  his  refusal 
to  take  the  oath  of  supremacy,  Elizabeth  deprived  him 
of  his  archbishopric,  York  House  passed  into  the  hands 
of  her  new  Lord  Keeper,  Sir  Nicholas  Bacon.  On  suc- 
ceeding to  the  honors  of  the  Marble  Chair,  Hatton  did 
not  move  from  Holborn  to  the  Strand;  but  otherwise  all 
the  holders  of  the  Great  Seal,  from  Heath  to  Francis 
Bacon  inclusive,  seems  to  have  occupied  York  House; 
Heath,  of  course,  using  it  by  right  as  Archbishop  of  York, 
and  the  others  holding  it  under  leases  granted  by  succes- 
sive archbishops  of  the  northern  province.  So  little  is 
known  of  Bromley,  apart  from  the  course  which  he  took 
towards  Mary  of  Scotland,  that  the  memory  of  old  York 
House  gains  nothing  of  interest  from  him.  Indeed  it  has 
been  questioned  whether  he  was  one  of  its  tenants. 
Puckering,  Egerton,  and  Francis  Bacon  certainly  in- 
habited it  in  succession.  On  Bacon's  fall  it  was  granted 
to  Buckingham,  whose  desire  to  possess  the  picturesque 
palace  was  one  of  the  motives  which  impelled  him  to 
blacken  the  great  lawyer's  reputation.  Seized  by  the 
Long  Parliament,  it  was  granted  to  Lord  Fairfax,  fn 
the  following  generation  it  passed  into  the  hands  cf  tl^e 
second  Duke  of  Buckingham,  who  sold  house  and   pre- 


COURTS    AND     LAWYERS.  143 

cinct  for  building-ground.  The  bad  memory  of  the  man 
who  thus  for  gold  surrendered  a  spot  of  earth  sacred  to 
every  scholarly  Englishman  is  preserved  in  the  names  of 
George  Street,  Duke  Street,  Villiers  Street,  Buckinghcun 
street. 

The  engravings  commonly  sold  as  pictures  of  the  York 
House  in  which  Lord  Bacon  kept  the  seals,  are  like- 
nesses of  the  building  after  it  was  pulled  about,  dimin- 
ished and  modernized,  and  in  no  way  whatever  represent 
the  architecture  of  the  original  edifice.  Amongst  the 
art-treasures  of  the  University  of  Oxford,  Mr.  Hepworth 
Dixon  fortunately  found  a  rough  sketch  of  the  real 
house,  from  which  sketch  Mr.  E.  M.  Ward  drew  the 
vignette  that  embellishes  the  title-page  of  "  The  Story 
of  Lord  Bacon's  Life." 

After  the  expulsion  of  the  Great  Seal  of  old  York 
House,  it  wandered  from  house  to  house,  manifesting, 
however,  in  its  selections  of  London  quarters  a  prefer- 
ence for  the  grand  line  of  thoroughfare  between  Charing 
Cross  and  the  foot  of  Ludgate  Hill.  Escaping  from  the 
Westminster  Deanery,  where  Williams  kept  it  in  a  box, 
the  Clavis  Rcgni  inhabited  Durham  House,  Strand,  whilst 
under  Lord  Keeper  Coventry's  care.  Lord  Keeper 
Littleton,  until  he  made  his  famous  ride  from  London 
to  York,  lived  in  Exeter  House.  Clarendon  resided  in 
Dorset  House,  Salisbury  Court,  Fleet  Street,  and  subse- 
quently in  Worcester  House,  Strand,  before  he  removed 
to  the  magnificent  palace  which  roused  the  indignation 
of  the  public  in  St.  James's  Street.  The  greater  and 
happier  part  of  his  official  life  was  passed  in  Worcester 
House.  There  he  held  councils  in  his  bed-room  when 
he  was  laid  up  with  the  gout;  there  King  Charles  visited 
him  familiarly,  even  condescending  to  be  present  at  the 
bedside  councils ;  and  there  he  was  established  when  the 
Great  Fire  of  London  caused  him,  in  a  panic,  to  send 


144  PLEASANTRIES     OE    EXGLISH 

liis  most  valuable  furniture  to  his  villa  at  Twickenham, 
Thanet  House,  Aldersgate  Street,  is  the  residence  with 
which  Shaftesbury,  the  politician,  is  most  generally  asso- 
ciated ;  but  whilst  he  was  Lord  Chancellor  he  occupied 
Exeter  House,  Strand,  formerly  the  abode  of  Keeper 
Littleton.  Lord  Nottingham  slept  with  the  seals  under 
his  pillow  in  Great  Queen  Street,  Lincoln's  Inn  Fields, 
the  same  street  in  which  his  successor.  Lord  Guildford, 
had  the  establishment  so  racily  described  by  his  brother 
Roger  North.  And  Lord  Jeffreys  moving  westward,  gave 
noisy  dinners  in  Duke  Street,  Westminster,  where  he 
opened  a  court-house  that  was  afterwards  consecrated  as 
a  place  of  worship,  and  is  still  known  as  the  Duke  Street 
Chapel.  Says  Pennant,  describing  the  Chancellor's  resi- 
dence, "  It  is  easily  known  by  a  large  flight  of  stone 
steps,  which  his  royal  master  permitted  to  be  made  into 
the  park  adjacent  for  the  accommodation  of  his  lordship. 
These  steps  terminated  above  in  a  small  court,  on  three 
sides  of  which  stands  the  house."  The  steps  still  remain, 
but  their  history  is  unknown  to  many  of  the  habitual 
frequentersof  the  chapel.  After  Jeffreys'  fall  the  spacious 
and  imposing  mansion,  where  the  bon-vivants  of  the  bar 
used  to  drink  inordinately  with  the  wits  and  buftbons  of 
the  London  theaters,  was  occupied  by  Government ;  and 
there  the  Lords  of  the  Admiralty  had  their  offices  until 
they  moved  to  their  quarters  opposite  Scotland  Yard. 
Narcissus  Luttrell's  Diary  contains  the  following  en- 
try : — "  April  23,  1690.  The  late  Lord  Chancellor's  house 
at  Westminster  is  taken  for  the  Lords  of  the  Admiralty 
to  keep  the  Admiralty  Office  at." 

William  III.,  wishing  to  fix  the  holders  of  the  Great 
Seal  in  a  permanent  official  home,  selected  Powis  House 
(more  generally  kno  A  n  by  the  name  of  Newcastle  House), 
in  Lincoln's  Inn  Fields,  as  a  residence  for  Somers  and 
future  Chancellors.     The  Treasury  minute    books    pre- 


f 


COURTS    AND     LAWYERS.  145 

serve  an  entry  of  September  II,  1696,  directing  a  Privy- 
Seal  to  "discharge  the  process  for  the  appraised  value 
of  the  house,  and  to  declare  the  king's  pleasure  that  the 
Lord  Keeper  or  Lord  Chancellor  for  the  time  being 
should  have  and  enjoy  it  for  the  accommodation  of  their 
offices."  Soon  after  his  appointment  to  the  seals,  Somers 
took  possession  of  this  mansion  at  the  northwest  corner 
of  the  Fields;  and  after  him  Lord  Keeper  Sir  Nathan 
Wright,  Lord  Chancellor  Cowper,  and  Lord  Chancellor 
Harcourt  used  it  as  an  official  residence.  But  the  ar- 
rangement was  not  acceptable  to  the  legal  dignitaries. 
They  preferred  to  dwell  in  their  private  houses,  from 
which  they  were  not  liable  to  be  driven  by  a  change  of 
ministry  or  a  gust  of  popular  disfavor.  \n  the  year  171 1 
the  mansion  was  therefore  sold  to  John  l^olles,  Duke  of 
Newcastle,  to  whom  it  is  indebted  for  the  name  which 
it  still  bears.  This  large,  unsightly  mansion  is  knov/n 
to  every  one  who  lives  in  London,  and  has  any  knowl- 
edge of  the  political  and  social  life  of  the  earlier  Georgiai 
courtiers  and  statesmen. 


CHAPTER     XXI. 

THE  annals  of  the  legal  profession  show  that  the 
neighborhood  of  Guildhall  was  a  favorite  place 
of  residence  with  the  ancient  lawyers,  who  either  held 
judicial  offices  within  the  circle  of  the  Lord  Mayor's 
jurisdiction,  or  whose  practice  lay  chiefly  in  the  civic 
courts.  \\\  the  fifteenth  and  sixteenth  centuries  there 
was  quite  a  colony  of  jurists  hard  by  the  temple  of  Gog- 
magog  and  Cosineus — or  Gog  and  Magog,  as  the  gro- 
tesque giants  are  designated  by  the  unlearned,  who  know 


T46  PLEASANTRIES    OE    ENGLISH 

not  ihe  history  of  the  two  famous  effigies,  which  origin- 
ally figured  in  an  Elizabethan  pageant,  stirring  the 
wonder  of  the  illiterate,  and  reminding  scholars  of  two 
mythical  heroes  about  whom  the  curious  reader  of  this 
paragraph  may  learn  further  particulars  by  referring  to 
Michael  Drayton's  "  Polyolbion." 

In  Milk  Street,  Cheapside,  lived  Sir  John  More,  j'idge 
in  the  Court  of  King's  Bench  ;  and  in  Milk  Street.  A.D. 
1480,  was  born  Sir  John's  famous  son  Thomas,  the 
Chancellor,  who  was  at  the  same  time  learned  and  simple, 
witty  and  pious,  notable  for  gentle  meekness  and  firm 
resolve,  abounding  with  tenderness  and  hot  with 
courage.  Richard  Rich — -who  beyond  Scroggs  or  Jeff- 
reys deserves  to  be  remembered  as  the  arch-scoundrel 
of  the  legal  profession — was  one  of  Thomas  More's  play- 
mates and  boon  companions  for  several  years  of  their 
•boyhood  and  )-ouUi.  Richard's  father  was  an  opulent 
mercer,  and  one  of  Sir  John's  near  neighbors  ;  so  the 
youngsters  were  intimate  until  Master  Dick,  exhibiting 
at  an  early  age  his  vicious  propensities,  came  to  be 
"esteemed  very  light  of  his  tongue,  a  great  dicer  and 
gamester,  and  not  of  any  commendable  fame." 

On  marrying  his  first  wife  Sir  Thomas  More  settled 
in  a  house  in  Bucklersbury,  the  City  being  the  proper 
quarter  for  his  residence,  as  he  was  an  under-sheriff  of 
the  City  of  London,  in  which  character  he  both  sat  in 
the  Court  of  the  Lord  Mayor  and  Sheriffs,  and  presided 
over  a  separate  court  on  the  Tuesday  of  each  week. 
Whilst  living  in  Bucklersbury  he  had  chambers  in  Lin- 
coln's Inn.  On  leaving  Buckersbury  he  took  a  house 
in  Crosby  Place;  from  which  he  moved,  in  1 523.  to 
Chelsea,  in  which  parish  he  built  the  house  that  was  event- 
ually pulled  down  by  Sir  Hans  Sloane  in  the  year  1740. 

A  generation  later,  Sir  Nicholas  Bacon  was  living  in 
Noble  Street,  Foster  Lane,  vvhere,he  had  built  the  man- 


I 


COURTS    AND    LAWYERS.  147 

Eion  known  as  Bacon  House,  in  which  he  resided  till,  as 
Lord  Keeper,  he  took  possession  of  York  House.  Chief 
Justice  Bramston  lived,  at  different  parts  of  his  career,  in 
Whitechapel ;  in  Philip  Lane,  Aldermanbury  ;  and  (after 
his  removal  from  Bosworth  Court)  in  Warwick  Lane. 
Sir  John  Bramston  (the  autobiographer)  married  into  a 
house  in  Charterhouse  Yard,  where  his  father,  the  Chief 
Justice,  resided  with  him  for  a  short  time. 

But  from  an  early  date,  and  especially  during  the 
seventeenth  and  eighteenth  centuries,  the  more  prosper- 
ous of  the  working  lawyers  either  lived  within  the  walls 
of  the  Inns,  or  in  houses  lying  near  the  law  colleges. 
Fleet  Street,  the  Strand,  Holborn,  Chancery  Lane,  and 
the  good  streets  leading  into  those  thoroughfares,  con- 
tained a  numerous  legal  population  in  the  times  between 
Elizabeth's  death  and  George  HL's  first  illness.  Rich 
benchers  and  judges  wishing  for  more  commodious 
quarters  than  they  could  obtain  at  any  cost  within  college 
Vv-alls,  erected  mansions  in  the  immediate  vicinity  of  their 
Inns:  and  their  example  was  followed  by  less  exalted 
and  less  opulent  members  of  the  bar  and  judicial  bench. 
The  great  Lord  Strafford  first  saw  the  light  in  Chancery 
Lane,  in  the  house  of  his  maternal  grandfather,  who  was 
a  bencher  of  Lincoln's  Inn.  Lincoln's  Inn  Fields  was 
principally  built  for  the  accommodation  of  wealthy  law- 
yers ;  and  in  Charles  II. 's  reign  Queen  Street,  Lincoln's 
Inn  Fields,  was  in  high  repute  with  legal  magnates. 
Sir  Edward  Coke  lived  alternately  in  chambers,  and  in 
Hatton  House,  Holborn,  the  palace  that  came  to  him  by 
his  second  marriage.  John  Kelyng's  house  stood  in 
Hatton  Garden,  and  there  he  died  in  167 1.  In  his  man- 
sion in  Lincoln's  Inn  Fields,  Sir  Harbottle  Grimston, 
on  June  25,  1660  (shortly  before  his  appointment  to  the 
Mastership  of  the  Rolls,  for  which  place  he  is  said  to 
}iave  given  Clarendon  i^Sooo),  entertained  Charles  II.  and 


148  PLEASANTRIES    OF    ENGLISH 

a  grand  gathering  of  noble  company.  After  his  maniage 
Francis  North  took  his  high-born  bride  into  chambers, 
which  they  inhabited  for  a  short  time  until  a  house  in 
Chancery  Lane,  near  Sergeant's  Inn,  was  ready  for  their 
use.  On  Nov.  15,  1666, — the  year  of  the  fire  of  London, 
in  which  year  Hyde  had  his  town  house  in  the  Strand — 
Glyii  died  in  his  house,  in  Portugal  Row,  Lincoln's  Inn 
]''ields.  On  June  15,  1691,  Henry  Pollexfen,  Chief  Justice 
of  Common  Pleas,  expired  in  his  mansion  in  Lincoln's 
Inn  Fields.  These  addresses — taken  from  a  list  of  legal 
addresses  lying  before  the  writer — indicate  with  suffi- 
cient clearness  the  quarter  of  the  town  in  which  Charles 
II. 's  lawj^ers  mostly  resided. 

Under  Charles  II.  the  population  of  the  Inns  was  such 
that  barristers  wishing  to  marry  could  not  easily  obtain 
com.modious  quarters  within  college-walls.  Dugdale  ob- 
serves "that  all  but  the  benchers  go  two  to  a  chamber: 
a  bencher  hath  only  the  privilege  of  a  chamber  to  him- 
self." Pie  adds — "  If  there  be  any  one  chamber  consist- 
ing of  two  parts,  and  the  one  part  exceeds  the  other  in 
value,  and  he  who  hath  the  best  part  sells  the  same,  yet 
the  purchaser  shall  enter  into  the  worst  part  ;  for  it  is  a 
certain  rule  that  the  auntient  in  the  chamber — -inz.,  he  who 
was  therein  first  admitted,  without  respect  to  their  antiq- 
uit)-  in  the  house,  hath  his  choice  of  either  part."  This 
custom  of  sharing  chambers  gave  rise  to  the  word  "  chum- 
ming," an  abbreviation  of  "  chambering."  Barristers  in 
the  present  time  often  share  a  chamber — /.  e.,  set  of 
rooms.  In  the  seventeen  century  an  utter-barrister  found 
the  half  of  a  set  of  rooms  inconveniently  narrow  quarters 
for  himself  and  wife.  By  arranging  privately  with  a  non- 
resident brother  of  the  long  robe,  he  sometimes  obtained 
an  entire  "  chamber,"  and  had  the  space  allotted  to  a 
bencher.  When  he  could  not  make  such  an  arrangement, 
he  usual!}' mo\'ed  10  a  house  outside  the  gate,  but  in  the 


COURTS    AND    LAWYERS.  T49 

immediate  vicinity  of  his  Inn,  as  soon  as  his  lady  pie^ 
sented  him  with  children,  if  not  sooner. 

Of  course  working,  as  well  as  idle,  members  of  the 
profession  were  found  in  other  quarters.  Some  still  lived 
ill  the  City:  others  preferred  more  fashionable  districts. 
Roger  North,  brother  of  the  Lord  Keeper  and  son  of  a 
peer,  lived  in  the  Piazza  of  Covent  Garden,  in  the  house 
formerly  occupied  by  Lely  the  painter.  To  this  house 
Sir  Dudley  North  moved  from  his  costly  and  dark  man- 
sion in  the  City  ;  and  in  it  he  shortly  afterwards  died, 
under  the  hands  of  Dr.  Radcliffe  and  the  prosperous 
apothecary,  Mr.  St.  Amand.  "  He  had  removed,"  writes 
Roger,  "  from  his  great  house  in  the  City,  and  came  to 
that  in  the  Piazza  which  Sir  Peter  Lely  formerly  used, 
and  I  had  lived  in  alone  for  divers  years.  We  were  so 
much  together,  and  my  incumbrances  so  small,  that  so 
large  a  house  might  hold  us  both."  Roger  was  a  prac- 
ticing barrister  and  Recorder  of  Bristol. 

During  his  latter  years  Sir  John  Bramston  (the  auto- 
biographer)  kept  house  in  Greek  Street,  Soho. 

In  the  time  of  Charles  II.  the  wealthy  lawyers  often 
maintained  suburban  villas,  where  they  enjoyed  the  air 
and  pastimes  of  the  country.  When  his  wife's  health 
failed,  Francis  North  took  a  villa  for  her  at  Hammersmith,. 
*'  for  the  advantage  of  better  air,  which  he  thought  bene- 
ficial for  her;"  and  whilst  his  household  tarried  there, 
he  never  slept  at  his  chambers  in  town,  "  but  always 
went  home  to  his  family,  and  was  seldom  an  evening 
without  company  agreeable  to  him."  In  his  later  years, 
Chief  Justice  Pemberton  had  a  rural  mansion  in  High- 
gate,  where  his  death  occurred  on  June  lO,  169S,  in  the 
74th  year  of  his  age.  A  pleasant  chapter  might  be  writ- 
ten on  the  suburban  seats  of  our  great  lawyers  from  the 
Restoration  down  to  the  present  time.  Lord  Manstield'i; 
"  Kenwood  "  is  dear  to  all  that  are  curious  in  legal  ana. 


i.-;o  PLEASANTRIES    OF    ENGLISH 

Charles  Yorke  had  a  villa  at  Highgate,  where  he  enter- 
tained his  political  and  personal  friends.  Holland,  the 
architect,  built  a  villa  at  Dulvvich  for  Lord  Thurlow; 
and  in  consequence  of  a  quarrel  between  the  Chancellor 
and  the  builder,  the  former  took  such  a  dislike  to  the 
house,  that  after  its  completion  he  never  slept  a  night 
in  it,  though  he  often  passed  his  holidays  in  a  small  lodge 
standing  in  the  grounds  of  the  villa.  "Lord  Thurlow,'' 
asked  a  lady  of  him,  as  he  was  leaving  the  Queen's  Draw- 
ing-room, "when  are  you  going  into  your  new  house?" 
"  Madam,"  answered  the  surly  Chancellor,  incensed  b> 
her  curiosity,  "the  Queen  has  asked  me  that  impudent 
question,  and  I  would  not  answer  her;  I  will  not  tell 
you."  For  years  Loughborough  and  Erskine  had  houses 
in  Hampstead.  "  \n  Lord  Mansfield's  time,"  Erskine 
once  said  to  Lord  Campbell,  "  although  the  King's  Bench 
monopolized  all  the  common-law  business,  the  court 
often  rose  at  one  or  two  o'clock — the  papers,  special, 
crown,  and  peremptory  being  cleared  ;  and  then  I  re- 
freshed myself  by  a  drive  to  my  villa  at  Hampstead."  It 
was  on  Hampstead  Heath  that  Loughborough,  meeting 
ILrskine  in  the  dusk,  said,  "  Erskine,  you  must  not  take 
Paine's  brief ;"  and  received  the  prompt  reply,  "But  I 
have  been  retained,  and  I  will  take  it,  by  G — d  !  "  Much 
of  that  which  is  most  pleasant  in  Erskine's  career  oc- 
curred in  his  Hampstead  villa.  Of  Lord  Kenyon's 
weekly  trips  from  his  mansion  in  Lincoln's  Inn  Fields 
to  his  farm-house  at  Richmond  notice  has  been  taken  in 
a  previous  chapter.  The  memory  of  Charles  Abbott's 
Hendon  villa  is  preserved  in  the  name,  style,  and  title  of 
Lord  Tenterden,  of  Hendon,  in  the  county  of  Middle- 
sex. Indeed,  lawyers  have  for  many  generations  mani- 
fested much  fondness  for  fresh  air;  the  impure  atmos- 
phere of  their  courts  in  past  time  apparently  whetting 
their  appetite  for  wholesome  breezes. 


COURTS    AND     LAWYERS.  151 

Throughout  the  eighteenth  century  Lincohi's  Inn 
Fields,  an  open  though  disorderly  spot,  was  a  great  place 
for  the  residence  of  legal  magnates.  Somers,  Nathan 
Wright,  Covvper,  Harcourt,  successively  inhabited  Powis 
House.  Chief  Justice  Parker  (subsequently  Lord  Chan- 
cellor Macclesfield)  lived  there  when  he  engaged  Philip 
Yorke  (then  an  attorney's  articled  clerk,  but  afterwards 
Lord  Chancellor  of  England)  to  be  his  sons'  law-tutor. 
On  tlie  south  side  of  the  square,  Lord  Chancellor  Henley 
kept  high  state  in  the  family  mansion  that  descended  to 
him  on  the  death  of  his  elder  brother,  and  subsequently 
passed  into  the  hands  of  the  Surgeons,  whose  modest 
but  convenient  college  standi  upon  its  site.  Wedderburn 
and  Erskine  had  their  mansions  in  Lincoln's  Lin  Fields, 
as  well  as  their  suburban  villas.  And  between  the  lawyers 
of  the  Restoration  and  the  judges  of  George  HL's  reign, 
a  large  proportion  of  our  most  eminent  jurists  and  advo- 
cates lived  in  that  square  and  the  adjoining  streets  ;  such 
as  Queen  Street  on  the  west,  Serle  Street,  Carey  Street, 
Portugal  Street,  Chancery  Lane,  on  the  south  and  south- 
east. Tl  e  reader,  let  it  be  observed,  may  not  infer  that 
this  quarter  was  confined  to  legal  residents.  The  lawyers 
were  the  most  conspicuous  and  influential  occupants; 
but  they  had  for  neighbors  people  of  higher  quality, 
Vv'ho,  attracted  to  the  square  by  its  openness,  or  the  con- 
venience of  its  site,  or  the  proximity  of  the  law  colleges, 
made  it  their  place  of  abode  in  London.  Such  names  as 
those  of  the  Earl  of  Lindsey  and  the  Earl  of  Sandwich 
in  the  seventeenth,  and  of  the  Duke  of  Ancaster  and  the 
Uuke  of  Newcastle  in  the  eighteenth  century,  establish 
tile  patrician  character  of  the  quarter  for  many  years. 
Moreover,  from  the  books  of  popular  antiquaries,  a  long 
list  might  be  made  of  wits,  men  of  science,  and  minor 
celebrities,  who,  though  not  personally  connected  witli 
the  law,  lived   under  the  shadow  of  Lincoln's  Lm. 


152  PLK  I  SAN  TRIES     OF    ENGLISH 

Whilst  Lincoln's  Inn  Fields  took  rank  amonL^st  the 
most  aristocratic  quarters  of  the  town,  it  was  as  dis- 
orderly a  square  as  could  be  found  in  all  London.  Royal 
suggestions,  the  labors  of  a  learned  committee  especially 
appointed  by  James  L  to  decide  on  a  proper  system  of 
architecture,  and  Liigo  Jones's  magnificent  but  abortive 
scheme  had  but  a  poor  result.  In  Queen  Anne's  reign, 
and  for  tw^enty  years  later,  the  open  space  of  the  fields 
was  daily  crowded  with  beggars,  mountebanks,  and  noisy 
rabble  :  and  it  was  the  scene  of  constant  uproar  and  fre- 
quent riots.  As  soon  as  a  nobleman's  coach  drew  up 
before  one  of  the  surrounding  mansions,  a  mob  of  half- 
naked  rascals  swarmed  about  the  equipage,  asking  for 
alms  in  alternate  tones  of  entreaty  and  menace.  Pugi- 
listic encounters,  and  fights  resembling  the  faction-fights 
of  an  Irish  row,  were  of  daily  occurrence  there  ;  and  when 
the  rabble  decided  on  torturing  a  bull  with  dogs,  the 
wretched  beast  was  tied  to  a  stake  in  the  center  of  the 
wide  area,  and  their  baited  in  the  presence  of  a  ferocious 
multitude,  and  to  the  diversion  of  fashionable  ladies,  who 
watched  the  scene  from  their  drawing-room  windows. 
The  Sacheverell  outrage  was  wildest  in  this  chosen  quar- 
ter of  noblemen  and  blackguards  ;  and  in  George  II.'s 
reign,  when  Sir  Joseph  Jekyll,  the  Master  of  the  Rolls, 
made  himself  odious  to  the  lowest  class  by  his  Act  for 
laying  an  excise  upon  gin,  a  mob  assailed  him  in  the 
middle  of  the  fields,  threw  him  to  the  ground,  kicked 
him  over  and  over,  and  savagely  trampled  upon  him. 
It  was  a  marvel  that  he  escaped  with  his  life  ;  but  with 
characteristic  good  humor,  he  soon  made  a  joke  of  his 
ill-usage,  saying  that  until  the  mob  made  him  their  foot- 
ball he  had  never  been  master  of  all  the  rolls.  Soon 
after  this  outbreak  of  popular  violence,  the  inhabitants 
tnclosed  the  middle  of  the  area  with  palisades,  and 
turned  the  enclosure  into  an  ornamental  sfarden.     0*= 


COURTS    AND     LAWYERS.  153 

scribing  the  Fields  in  1736,  the  year  in  which  the  ob- 
noxious Act  concerning  gin  becan:ie  law,  James  Ralph 
says,  "  Several  of  the  original  houses  still  remain,  to  be 
a  reproach  to  the  rest  ;  and  I  wish  the  disadvantageous 
comparison  had  been  a  warning  to  others  to  have  avoided 

a  like  mistake But  this  is  not  the  only  quarrel 

I  have  to  Lincoln's  Inn  Fields;  the  area  is  capable  of 
the  highest  improvement,  might  be  made  a  credit  to  the 
whole  city,  and  do  honor  to  those  who  live  round  it  ; 
whereas  at  present  no  place  can  be  more  contemptible 
or  forbidding  ;  in  short,  it  serves  only  as  a  nursery  for 
beggars  and  thieves,  and  is  a  daily  reflection  on  those 
who  suffer  it  to  be  in  its  abandoned  condition." 

During  the  eighteenth  century,  a  tendency  to  establish 
themselves  in  the  western   portion  of  the  town  was  dis- 
cernible   amongst    the   great   law   lords.     For   instance, 
Lord  Cowper,  who  during  his  tenure  of  the  seals  resided 
in  Powis  House,  during  his  latter  years  occupied  a  man- 
sion in  Great  George  Street,  Westminster — once  a  most 
fashionable  locality,  but  now   a  street   almost   entirely 
given  up  to  civil  engineers,  who  have  offices  there,  but 
usually  live  elsewhere.      \\\  like  manner,  Lord  Harcourt, 
moving  westwards  from  Lincoln's  Lin  Fields,  established 
himself  in  Cavendish  Square.      Lord  Henley,  on  retiring 
from  the  family  mansion  in  Lincoln's  Lin  Fields,  settled 
in  Grosvenor  Square.   Lord  Camden  lived  in  Hill  Street, 
Berkeley   Square.     On    being   entrusted   with    the    sole 
custody  of  the  seals,  Lord  Apsley  (better  known  as  Lord 
Chancellor    Bathurst)   made    his   first   stage-progress    to 
Westminster  Hall  from  his  house  in  Dean  Street,  Soho  ; 
but   afterwards    moving   farther  west,   he    built   Apsley 
House  (familiar  to  every  Englishman  as  the  late  Duke 
of  Wellington's  town  mansion)  upon  the  site  of  Squire 
Western's  favorite  inn — the  "  Hercules'  Pillars." 


154  PLEASANTRIES    OF    ENGLISH 


CHAPTER      XXII. 

IFTEEN  years  since  the  writer  of  this  page  used 
to  dine  with  a  conveyancer — a  lawyer  of  an  old 
and  almost  obsolete  school — who  had  a  numerous  house- 
hold, and  kept  a  hospitable  table  in  Lincoln's  Inn  Fields; 
but  the  conveyancer  was  almost  the  last  of  his  species. 
The  householding  legal  resident  of  the  Fields,  like  the 
domestic  resident  of  the  Temple,  has  become  a  feature 
of  the  past.  Amongst  the  ordinary  nocturnal  popula- 
tion of  the  square  called  Lincoln's  Inn  Fields,  may  be 
found  a  few  solicitors  who  sleep  by  night  where  they 
work  by  day,  and  a  sprinkling  of  young  barristers  and 
law  students  who  have  residential  chambers  in  grand 
houses  that,  less  than  a  century  since,  were  tenanted  by 
members  of  a  proud  and  splendid  aristocracy;  but  the 
gentle  families  have  by  this  time  altogether  disappeared 
from  the  mansions. 

But  long  before  this  aristocratic  secession,  the  lawyers 
took  possession  of  a  new  quarter.  The  great  charm  ^f 
Lincoln's  Inn  Fields  had  been  the  freshness  of  the  air 
which  played  over  the  open  space.  So  also  the  recom- 
niendation  of  Great  Queen  Street  had  been  the  purity 
of  its  rural  atmosphere.  Built  between  1630  and  173c, 
that  thoroughfare — at  present  hemmed  in  by  fetid  courts 
and  narrow  passages — caught  the  keen  breezes  of  Hamp- 
stead,  and  long  maintained  a  character  for  salubrity  as 
well  as  fashion.  Of  those  fine  squares  and  imposing 
streets  which  lie  between  High  Holborn  and  Hamp- 
stead,  not  a  stone  had  been  laid  when  the  ground  covered 
by  the  present  Freemasons'  Tavern  was  one  of  the  most 
desirable  sites  of  the  metropolis.  Indeed,  the  houser. 
between  Holborn  and  Great  Queen  Street  were  not 
erected    until    the    mansions   on    the   south   side  of   the 


COURTS    AND     LAWYERS.  155 

latter  thoroughfare — built  long  before  the  northern  side 
side — had  for  years  commanded  an  unbroken  view  of 
Holborn  Fields.  Notwithstanding  many  gloomy  pre- 
dictions of  the  evils  that  would  necessarily  follow  from 
over-building,  London  steadily  increased,  and  enter- 
prising architects  deprived  Lincoln's  Inn  Fields  and 
Great  Queen  Street  of  their  rural  qualities. 

Crossing  Holborn,  the  lawyers  settled  on  a  virgin 
plain,  beyond  the  ugly  houses  which  had  sprung  up  on 
tlie  north  of  Great  Queen  Street,  and  on  the  country 
side  of  Holborn.  Speedily  a  new  quarter  arose,  extend- 
i:^g  from  Gray's  Inn  on  the  east  to  Southampton  Row 
on  the  west,  and  lying  between  Holborn  and  the  line  of 
Ormond  Street.  Red  Lion  Street,  Bedford  Row,  Great 
Ormond  Street,  Little  Ormond  Street,  Great  James 
Street,  and  Little  James  Street,  were  amongst  its  best 
thoroughfares;  in  its  centre  was  Red  Lion  Square,  and 
in  its  northwestern  corner  lay  Queen's  Square.  Steadily 
enlarging  its  boundaries,  it  comprised  at  later  dates 
Guildford  Street,  John's  Street,  Doughty  Street,  Meck- 
lenburgh  Square,  Brunswick  Square,  Bloomsbury  Square, 
Russell  Square,  Bedford  Square — indeed,  all  the  region 
lying  between  Gray's  Inn  Lane  (on  the  east),  Tottenham 
Court  Road  (on  the  west),  Holborn  (on  the  south),  and  a 
line  running  along  the  north  of  the  Foundling  Hospital 
and  "  the  squares."  Of  course  this  large  residential 
district  was  more  than  the  lawyers  required  for  them- 
seK'es.  It  became  and  long  remained  a  favorite  quarter 
with   merchants, 'physicians, '  aiid  surgeons;  and   until  a 

'  Dr.  Clench  lived  in  Brownlow  Street,  Holborn  ;  and  until  his  dest>  in 
1331,  John  Abernethy  occupied  in  Bedford  Row  the  house  which  is  itill 
iiihal)iied  by  an  eminent  surgeon,  who  was  Abernethy's  favorite  pupil.  Of 
l>r.  Clench's  death  in  January,  1691-2,  Narcissus  Luttrell  gives  the  follow- 
ing; account : — "  The  5th,  last  niglit.  Dr.  Clench,  the  physician,  was  strangled 
in  a  c  jach  ;  two  persons  came  to  his  house  in  Brownlow  .Street,  Holboia, 
ill  a  coach,  and  pretended  to  carry  him  to  a  patient's  in  the  City  ;  they  drove 
tiacls-ward  and   forward,  and  after  some  time   slopt  by  [.eaden.hall,  and  sen 


tS6  PLEASANTRIES     OF    ENGLISH 

recent  date  it  comprised  the  mansions  of  many  leading 
members  of  the  aristocracy.  But  from  its  first  com- 
mencement it  was  so  intimately  associated  with  the 
legal  profession  that  it  was  often  called  the  *'  law 
quarter;"  and  the  writer  of  this  page  has  often  heard 
elderly  ladies  and  gentlemen  speak  of  it  as  the  "  old 
law  quarter." 

Although  lawyers  were  the  earliest  householders  in 
this  new  quarter,  its  chief  architect  encountered  at  first 
strong  opposition  from  a  section  of  the  legal  profession. 
Anxious  to  preserve  the  rural  character  of  their  neigh- 
borhood, the  gentlemen  of  Gray's  Inn  were  greatly  dis- 
pleased with  the  proposal  to  lay  out  Holborn  Fields 
in  streets  and  squares.  Under  date  June  lo,  16S4,  Nar- 
cissus Luttrell  wrote  in  his  diary: — "Dr.  Barebone,  the 
great  builder,  having  some  time  since  bought  the  Red 
Lyon  Fields,  near  Graie's  Inn  walks,  to  build  on,  and 
having  for  that  purpose  employed  severall  workmen  to 
goe  on  with  the  same,  the  gentlemen  of  Graie's  Inn  took 
notice  of  it,  and,  thinking  it  an  injury  to  them,  went 
with  a  considerable  body  of  lOO  persons  ;  upon  which 
the  workmen  assaulted  the  gentlemen,  and  flung  bricks 
at  them,  and  the  gentlemen  at  them  again.  So  a  sharp 
engagement  ensued,  but  the  gentlemen  routed  them  at 
last,  and  brought  away  one  or  two  of  the  workmen  tc 
Graie's  Inn  ;  in  this  skirmish  one  or  two  of  the  gentle- 
men and  servants  of  the  house  were  hurt,  and  severall 
of  the  v/orkmcn." 

James  Ralph's  remarks  on  the  principal  localities  of 
this  district  are  interesting.     "  Bedford   Row,"  he  says, 

the  coachman  to  buy  a  couple  of  fowls  for  supper,  who  went,  accordingly  ; 
and  in  the  mean  time  they  slipt  away;  and  the  coachman  when  he  returned 
found  Dr.  Clnnch  with  a  iiandkerchicf  lyed  about  his  neck,  with  a  hard  sea- 
coal  twisted  in  il,  and  clapt  against  his  windwipe  ;  he  had  spirits  applied  to 
him  and  other  means,  but  too  late,  he  having  been  dead  some  time."  iJr. 
Clench's  murderer — one  Mr.  Harrison,  a  man  of  gentle  condition — wa^  ap- 
prehended, tried,  found  gudly,  and  hung  in  chains. 


COURTS    AND     LAWYERS.  157 

*' is  one  of  the  most  noble  streets  that  London  has  to 
boast  of,  and  }-et  there  is  not  one  house  in  it  whicli 
deserves  the  least  attention."  He  tells  us  that  "  Ormond- 
streeL  is  another  place  of  pleasure,  and  that  side  of  it 
next  the  Fields  is,  beyond  question,  one  of  the  most 
charming  situations  about  town."  This  "  place  of 
pleasure  "  is  now  given  up  for  the  most  part  to  hospitals 
and  other  charitable  institutions,  and  to  lodging-houses 
of  an  inferior  sort.  Passing  on  to  Bloomsbury-square. 
and  speaking  of  the  Duke  of  Bedford's  residence,  which 
stood  on  the  north  side  of  the  square,  he  says:  "Then 
behind  it  has  the  advantage  of  most  agreeable  gardens, 
and  a  view  of  the  country,  which  would  make  a  retreat 
from  the  town  almost  unnecessary,  beside  the  oppor- 
tunity of  exhibiting  another  prospect  of  the  building, 
which  would  enrich  the  landscape,  and  challenge  new 
approbation."  This  was  written  in  1736.  At  that  time 
the  years  of  two  generations  were  appointed  to  pass  away 
ere  the  removal  of  Bedford  House  should  make  way  for 
Lower  Bedford-place,  leading  into  Russell-square. 

So  late  as  the  opening  years  of  George  HL's  reign, 
Queen's-square  enjoyed  an  unbroken  prospect  in  the 
direction  of  Highgate  and  Hampstead.  "  The  Foreigner's 
Guide:  or  a  Necessary  and  Listructive  Companion  both 
to  the  Foreigner  and  Native,  in  their  Tours  through  the 
Cities  of  London  and  Westminster  "  (1763),  contains  the 
following  passage  : — "  Queen's-square,  which  is  pleas- 
antly situated  at  the  extreme  part  of  the  town,  has  a 
fine  open  view  of  the  country,  and  is  handsomely  built, 
as  are  likewise  the  neighboring  streets — viz:  South- 
ampton-row,  Ormond-street,  &c.  \\\  this  last  is  Powis 
Mouse,  so  named  from  the  Marquis  of  Powis,  who  built 
the  present  stately  structure  in  the  year  1713.  It  is 
now  the  town  residence  of  the  Earl  of  Hardwicke,  late 
Lord  Chancellor.     The   apartments  are  noble,  and  the 


iS?>  PLEASANTRIES    OE     ENGLISH 

whole  edifice  is  commendable  for  its  situation,  an^  the 
fine  prospect  of  the  country.  Not  far  from  thence  is 
Bloomsbury-square.  This  square  is  commendable  for 
its  situation  and  largeness.  On  the  north  side  is  the 
house  of  the  Duke  of  Bedford.  This  building  was 
erected  from  a  design  of  Inigo  Jones,  and  is  very  elegant 
and  spacious."  From  the  duke's  house  in  Bloomsbury- 
square  and  his  surrounding  property,  the  political  party, 
of  which  he  was  the  chief,  obtained  the  nickname  of  the 
Bloomsbury  Gang. 

Chief  Justice  Holt  died  March  5,  1710,  at  his  house  ' 
in  Bedford-row.  In  Red  Lion-square  Chief  Justice 
Raymond  had  the  town -mansion,  wherein  he  died  on 
April  15,  1733  ;  twelve  years  after  Sir  John  Pratt,  Lord 
Camden's  father,  died  at  his  house  in  Ormond-street. 
On  December  15,  1761,  Chief  Justice  Willes  died  at  his 
house  in  Bloomsbury-square.  Chagrin  at  missing  the 
seals  through  his  own  arrogance,  vhen  they  had  been 
actually  offered  to  him,  was  supposed  to  be  a  principal 
cause  of  the  Chief  Justice's  death.  His  friends  repre- 
sented that  he  died  of  a  broken  heart;  to  which  asser- 
tion flippant  enemies  responded  that  no  man  ever  had  a 
heart  after  living  seventy-four  years.  Murray  for  many 
years  inhabited  a  handsome  house  in  Lincoln's  Lin 
Fields;  but  his  name  is  more  generally  associated  with 
Bioomsbury-square,  where  stood  the  house  which  was 
packed  and  burned  b\'  the  Gordon  rioters.  Li  Blooms- 
bury-square our  grandfathers  used  to  lounge,  watching 
the  house  of  Edward  Law.  subsequen.tly  Lord  Ellen- 
borough,  in  the  hope  of  seeing  Mrs.  Law,  as  she  watered 
the    flowers    of  her  balcoiu'.     Mrs.  Law's  maiden   name 

'  llclt's  country  seat  was  Redgrave  Hall,  formerly  the  home  of  ti;e 
Earons.  It  was  on  his  manor  of  Rerli;rnve  ihat  Sir  Nicholas  Bacon  entci- 
laiiied  Queen  Elizabeth  when  she  remarked  that  her  Lord  Keeper's  house 
was  too  small  for  him,  and  he  answered — "  Your  Majesty  has  made  me  too 
great  foi  my  house." 


COURTS    AND     LAWYERS.  159 

was  Tow  ry,  and,  as  a  beauty,  she  remained  for  years  the 
rage  of  London.  Even  at  this  date  there  remain  a  few 
aged  gentlemen  whose  eyes  sparkle  and  whose  cheeks 
flush  wlien  they  recall  the  charms  of  the  lovely  creature 
who  became  the  wife  of  ungainly  Edward  Law,  after  re- 
fusing him  on  three  separate  occasions. 

On  becoming  Lord  EUenborough  and  Chief  Justice, 
Edward  Law  moved  to  a  great  mansion  in  St.  James's- 
square,  the  size  of  v>hich  he  described  to  a  friend  by 
saying:  "  Sir,  if  you  let  off  a  piece  of  ordnance  in  the 
hall,  the  report  is  not  heard  in  the  bed-rooms."  In  this 
liouse  the  Chief  Justice  expired,  on  December  13,  1818. 
Speaking  of  Lord  Ellenborough's  residence  in  St. 
James's-square,  Lord  Campbell  says:  "This  was  the 
first  instance  of  a  common-law  judge  moving  to  the 
'  West  End.'  Hitherto  all  the  common-law  judges  had 
lived  within  a  radius  of  half  a  mile  from  Lincoln's  Lin; 
but  they  are  now  spread  over  the  Regent's  Park,  Hyde 
Park  Gardens,  and  Kensington  Gore." 

Lord  Hardwicke  and  Lord  Thurlow  have  been  more 
than  once  mentioned  as  inhabitants  of  Ormond-street. 

Eldon's  residence  may  be  noticed  with  advantage  in 
this  place.  On  leaving  Oxford  and  settling  in  London, 
he  took  a  small  house  for  himself  and  Mrs.  Scott  in 
Cursitor-street,  Chancery-lane.  About  tliis  dwelling  he 
wrote  to  his  brother  Henry  : — '•  I  have  got  a  house 
barely  sufficient  to  hold  my  small  family,  which  (so  great 
is  the  demand  for  them  here)  will,  in  rent  and  taxes, 
cost  me  annually  sixty  pounds."  To  this  house  he  used 
to  point  in  the  days  of  his  prosperity,  and,  in  allusion  to 
the  poverty  which  he  never  experienced,  he  would  add, 
"  There  was  my  first  perch.  Many  a  time  have  I  run 
down  from  Cursitor-street  to  Fleet  Market  and  bought 
.sixpenn'orih  of  sprats  for  our  supper."  After  leaving 
Cursitor-street    he    lived    in    Cary-stre.t,    Lincoln's    \\\\\ 


i6o  PLEASANTRIES     OF     ENGLISH 

Fields,  where  also,  in  his  hiter  years,  he  believed  himself 
to  have  endured  such  want  of  mone)'  that  he  and  his 
wife  were  glad  to  fill  themselves  with  sprats.  When  he 
fixed  this  anecdote  upon  Cary-street,  the  old  Chancellor 
u-^ed  to  represent  himself  as  buying  the  sprats  in  Clare 
Market  instead  of  Fleet  Market.  After  some  successful 
years  he  moved  his  household  from  the  vicinity  of  Lin- 
coln's Inn,  and  took  a  house  in  the  law  quarter,  selecting 
one  of  the  roomy  houses  (No.  42)  of  Gower-street,  where 
he  lived  when  as  Attorney  General  he  conducted  the 
futile  prosecutions  of  Hardy,  Home  Tooke,  and  Thel- 
wall,  in  1794. 

On  quitting  Gower-street,  Eldon  took  the  house  in 
Bedford-square,  which  witnessed  so  many  strange  scenes 
during  his  tenure  of  the  seals,  and  also  during  his  brief 
exclusion  from  office.  In  Bedford-square  he  played  the 
part  of  chivalric  protector  to  the  Princess  of  Wales,  and 
chuckled  over  the  proof-sheets  of  that  mysterious  ''  book  " 
by  the  publication  of  which  the  injured  wife  and  the 
lawyer  hoped  to  take  vengeance  on  their  common  enemy. 
There  the  Chancellor,  feeling  it  well  to  protract  his  flirta- 
tion with  the  Princess  of  Wales,  entertained  her  in  the 
June  of  1S08,  with  a  grand  banquet,  from  which  Lady 
Eldon  was  compelled  by  indisposition  to  be  absent.  And 
there,  four  years  later,  when  he  was  satisfied  that  licr 
Royal  Highness's  good  opinion  could  be  of  no  service  to 
him,  the  crafty,  self-seeking  minister  gave  a  still  more 
splendid  dinner  to  the  husband  whose  vices  he  had  pro- 
fessed to  abhor,  whose  meanness  of  spirit  he  had  declared 
the  object  of  his  contempt.  "  However,"  writes  Lord 
Cami)bell,  with  much  satiric  humor,  describing  this 
alliance  betweeen  the  selfish  voluptuary  and  the  equally 
selfish  law}-er,  "  he  was  much  comforted  by  having  the 
honor,  at  the  prorogation,  of  entertaining  at  dinner 
his  Royal  Highness  the  Regent,  with  whom  he  was  now 


COURTS    AND     LAWYERS.  i6i 

a  special  favorite,  and  who,  enjoying  the  splendid  hospi- 
tality of  Bedford-square,  forgot  that  the  Princess  of 
Wales  had  sat  in  the  same  room — at  the  same  table — on 
the  same  chair — had  drunk  of  the  same  wine — out  of  the 
same  cup — while  the  conversation  had  turned  on  her  bar- 
barous usage,  and  the  best  means  of  publishing  to  the 
world  Jier  wrongs  and  Jiis  misconduct." 

Another  of  tlie  Prince  Regent's  visits  to  Bedford- 
square  is  surrounded  with  comic  circumstances  and  asso- 
ciations. In  the  April  of  1815,  a  mastership  of  chancery 
became  vacant  by  the  death  of  Mr.  Morris  :  and  forthwith 
the  Chancellor  was  assailed  with  entreaties  from  every 
direction  for  the  vacant  post.  For  two  months  Eldon, 
pursuing  that  policy  of  which  he  was  a  consummate  mas- 
ter, delayed  to  appoint ;  but  on  June  2^,  he  disgusted  the 
bar  and  shocked  the  more  intelligent  section  of  London 
society  by  conferring  the  post  on  Jekyll,  the  courtly  bon 
vivant  and  witty  descendent  of  Sir  Joseph  Jekyll,  Master 
of  the  Rolls.  Amiable,  popular,  and  brilliant,  Jekyll  re- 
ceived the  congratulations  of  his  numerous  personal 
friends  ;  but  beyond  the  circle  of  his  private  acquaint- 
ance the  appointment  created  lively  dissatisfaction — dis- 
satisfaction which  was  heightened  rather  than  diminished 
by  the  knowledge  that  the  placeman's  good  fortune  was 
entirely  due  to  the  personal  importunity  of  the  Prince 
Regent,  who  called  at  the  Chancellor's  house,  and  having 
forced  his  way  into  the  bed-room,  to  which  Eldon  was 
confined  with  an  attack  of  gout,  refused  to  take  his  de- 
parture without  a  promise  that  his  friend  should  have 
the  vacant  place.  How  this  royal  influence  was  applied 
to  the  Chancellor  is  told  in  the  "  Anecdote  Book." 

Fortunately  Jekyll  was  less  incompetent  for  the  post 
than  his  enemies  had  declared,  and  his  friends  admitteti. 
He  proved  a  respectable  master,  and  held  his  post  until 
age  and  sickness  compelled  him  to  resign  it ;  and  then,  sus- 


i62  PLEASANTRIES    OF     ENGLISH 

tained  in  spirits  b\-  the  usual  retiring  pension,  he  sauntered 
on  right  mirthfully  into  the  valley  of  the  shadow  of  death. 
On  the  day  after  his  retirement,  the  jocose  veteran,  meet- 
ing Eldon  in  the  street,  observed — "Yesterday,  Lord 
Chancellor,  I  was  your  master  ;  to-day  I  am  my  own." 

From  Bedford-square,  Lord  Eldon,  for  once  following 
the  fashion,  moved  to  Hamilton-place,  Piccadilly.  With 
the  purpose  of  anno)'iiig  him,  the  "  Queen's  friend," 
during  the  height  of  the  '^  Queen  Caroline  agitation," 
proposed  to  buy  the  house  adjoining  the  Chancellor's 
residence  in  Hamilton-place,  and. to  fit  it  up  for  the  habi- 
tation of  that  not  altogether  meritorious  lady.  Such  an 
arrangement  would  have  been  an  humiliating  as  well  as 
exasperating  insult  to  a  lawyer  who,  as  long  as  the  excite- 
ment about  the  poor  woman  lasted,  would  have  been  liable 
to  affront  whenever  he  left  his  house  or  looked  through 
the  windows  facing  Hamilton-place.  The  same  mob  that 
delighted  in  hallooing  round  whatever  house  the  Queen 
honored  with  her  presence,  would  have  varied  their 
*'  hurrahs"  for  the  lady  with  groans  for  the  lawyer  who 
after  making  her  wrongs  the  stalking-horse  of  his  ambi- 
tion, had  become  one  of  her  chief  oppressors.  Eldon 
determined  to  leave  Hamilton-place  on  the  day  which 
sliould  see  the  Queen  enter  it  ;  and  iiearing  that  the 
Lords  of  the  Treasury  were  about  to  assist  her  with 
money  for  the  purchase  of  the  house,  he  wrote  to  Lord 
Liverpool,  protesting  against  an  arrangement  which  would 
.subject  him  to  annoyance  at  home  and  to  ridicule  out  of 
doors.  "I  should,"  he  wrote,  "be  very  unwilling  to 
state  anything  offensiveh',  but  I  can  not  but  express  my 
confidence  that  Government  will  not  aid  a  project  which 
must  remove  the  Chancellor  from  his  house  the  next  hov.;' 
that  it  takes  effect,  and  fr.)m  his  office  at  the  same  time." 
This  dec^tied  attitude  caused  the  (jovernrr.ent  to  w  ith- 
draw  their  countenance   from  the  project  ;   whereupon  a 


COURTS    AND     LAWYERS.  163 

public  subscription  was  opened  for  its  accomplishment. 
Sufficient  funds  were  immediately  proffered  :  and  the 
owner  of  the  mansion  had  verbally  made  terms  with  the 
patriots,  when  the  Chancellor,  outbiddini^  them,  bought 
the  house  himself.  "  I  had  no  other  means,"  he  wrote 
to  his  daughter,  "  of  preventing  the  destruction  of  my 
present  house  as  a  place  in  which  I  could  live,  or  which 
anybody  else  would  take.  The  purchase  money  is  large, 
but  I  have  already  had  such  offers,  that  I  shall  not, 'I 
think,  lose  by  it." 

Russell-square — where  Lord  Loughborough  (who 
knows  aught  of  the  Earl  of  Rossl\n  ?)  had  his  town 
house,  after  leaving  Lincoln's  Lm  Fields,  and  where 
Charles  Abbott  (Lord  Tenterden)  established  himself  on 
leaving  the  house  in  Queen-square,  into  which  he  married 
during  the  summer  of  1795  —  maintained  a  quasi-fashion- 
able repute  much  later  than  the  older  and  therefore  more 
interesting  parts  of  the  "  old  law  quarter."  Theodore 
Hook's  disdain  for  Bloomsbury  is  not  rightly  appreciated 
by  those  who  fail  to  bear  in  mind  that  tlie  Russell-square 
of  Hook's  time  was  tenanted  by  people  who — though 
they  were  unknown  to  "fashion,"  in  the  sense  given  to 
the  word  by  men  of  Brummel's  habits  and  tone — had  un- 
deniable status  amongst  the  aristocracy  and  gentry  of 
England.  With  some  justice  the  witty  writer  has  been 
ciiarged  with  snobbish  vul;;arity,  because  he  ridiculed 
humble  Bloomsbury  for  being  humible.  His  best  defense 
is  found  in  the  fact  that  his  extravagant  scorn  was  not 
directed  at  helpless  and  altogether  obscure  persons  so 
much  as  at  an  educated  and  well-born  class  who  laughed 
:  *"  ^'is  caricatures,  and  gave  dinners  at  which  hewasproud 
to  be  present.  Though  it  fiils  to  clear  the  novelist  of 
the  special  charge,  this  apology  has  a  certain  amount  of 
truth,  and  in  so  far  as  it  palliates  some  of  his  offenses 
against   good    taste   and  gentle  feeling,  by  all  means  let 


i64  PLEASANTRTES     OF     ENGLISH 

liim  have  the  full  benefit  of  it.  Criticism  can  afford  tc 
be  charitable  to  the  clever,  worthless  man,  now  that  no 
one  admires  or  tries  to  respect  him.  Again  it  may  be 
advanced,  in  Hook's  behalf,  that  political  animosity — a 
less  despicable,  thou:^h  not  less  luirtfiil  p  ission  than  love 
of  gentility — contributed  to  Hook's  dislike  of  the  quar- 
ter on  the  north  side  of  Holborn.  As  a  humorist  he  ridi- 
culed, as  a  panderer  to  fashionable  prejudices  he  sneered 
at,  Bloomsbury  ;  but  as  a  I'ory  he  cherished  a  genuine 
antagonism  to  the  district  of  town  that  was  associated 
in  the  public  mind  with  the  wealth  and  ascendency  of  the 
house  of  Bedford.  An}'how,  the  Russell-square  neigh- 
borhood— although  it  was  no  longer  fashionable,  as  Bcl- 
gravia  and  Ma}'fair  are  fasiiionable  at  the  present  day 
— remained  the  locality  of  many  important  families,  at 
the  time  when  Mr.  Theodore  Hook  was  pleased  to  assume 
that  no  one  above  the  condition  of  a  rich  tradesman  or 
second-rate  attorney  lived  in  it.  Of  the  lawyers  whose 
names  are  mournfully  associated  with  the  square  itself 
are  Sir  Samuel  Romilly  and  Sir  Thomas  Noon  Talfourd. 
\•^  i8i8,  the  year  of  his  destruction  by  his  own  hand,  Sir 
Samuel  Romilly  lived  there  ;  and  Talfourd  had  a  house 
on  the  east  side  of  the  square  up  to  the  time  of  his 
lamented  death  in  1854. 

That  Theordore  Hook's  ridicule  at  Bloomsbury  greatly 
lessened  for  a  time  the  value  of  its  houses  there  is  abun- 
dant evidence.  When  he  deluged  the  district  with 
scornful  satire,  his  voice  was  a  social  power,  to  which  a 
considerable  number  of  honest  people  paid  servile  re- 
spect. His  clever  words  were  repeated;  and  Bloomsbury 
having  become  a  popular  by-word  for  contempt,  aristo- 
cratic families  ceased  to  live,  and  were  reluctant  to  in- 
vest money,  in  its  well-built  mansions.  But  Hook  only 
accelerated  a  movement  which  had  for  years  been  stead- 
ily though  silently  making  progress.     Erskine  knew  Red 


I 


COURTS    AND     LAWYERS.  165 

Lion-square  when  every  house  was  occupied  by  a  lawyer 
of  wealth  and  eminence,  if  not  of  titular  rank;  but  be- 
fore he  quitted  the  stage,  barristers  had  relinquished  the 
ground  in  favor  of  opulent  shopkeepers.  When  an  iron- 
monger became  the  occupant  of  a  house  in  Red  Lion- 
square,  on  the  removal  of  a  distinguished  counsel, 
Erskine  wrote  the  epigram — 

"  This  house,  where  once  a  lawyer  dwelt, 
Is  now  a  smith's — alas  ! 
How  rapidly  the  iron  age 
Succeeds  ihe  age  of  brass." 

These  lines  point  to  a  minor  change  in  the  social  arrange- 
ments of  London,  which  began  with  the  century,  and 
was  still  in  progress  when  Erskine  had  for  years  been 
moldering  in  his  grave.  \x\  1823,  the  year  of  Erskine's 
death.  Chief  Baron  Richards  expired  in  his  town-house, 
in  Great  Ormond-street.  Li  thj  July  of  the  following 
year.  Baron  Wood — i.  c,  George  Wood,  the  famous 
special  pleader — died  at  his  house  in  Bedford-square, 
about  seventeen  months  after  his  resignation  of  his  seat 
in  the  Court  of  Exchequer  to  John  Hullock. 

At  the  present  time  the  legal  fraternity  has  deserted 
Bloomsbury.  The  last  of  the  judges  to  depart  was 
Chief  Baron  Pollock,  vvho  sold  his  great  house  in  Queen- 
square  at  a  quite  recent  date.  With  the  disappearance 
of  this  venerable  and  universally  respected  judge,  the 
legal  history  of  the  neighborhood  may  be  said  to  have 
closed.  Some  wealthy  solicitors  still  live  in  Russell- 
square  and  the  adjoining  streets  ;  a  few  old-fasliioned 
barristers  still  linger  in  Upper  Bedford-place  and  Lcnvei" 
Bedford-place.  Guildford-street  and  Doughty-street, 
and  the  adjacent  thoroughfares  of  the  same  class,  still 
number  a  sprinkling  of  rising  juniors,  literary  barristers, 
and  fairly  prosperous  attorneys.  Perhaps  the  ancient 
aroma  of  the  "  old  law  quarter  "—Mesopotamia,  as  it  is 


J  66  PLEASANTRIES    OF     ENGLISH 

now  disrespectfully  termed — is  still  strong  and  pleasant 
enough  to  attract  a  few  lawyers  who  cherish  a  senti- 
mental fondness  for  the  past.  A  survey  of  the  Post 
Office  Directory  creates  an  impression  that,  compared 
with  other  neighborhoods,  the  district  north  and  north- 
east of  Bloomsbury-square  still  possesses  more  than  an 
average  number  of  legal  residents  ;  but  it  no  longer 
lemains  the  quarter  of  the  lawyers. 

There  still  resides  in  Mecklenburgh-square  a  learned 
Queen's  Counsel,  for  whose  preservation  the  prayers  of 
the  neighborhood  constantly  ascend.  To  his  more 
scholarly  and  polite  neighbors  this  gentleman  is  an 
object  of  intellectual  interest  and  anxious  affection.  As 
the  last  of  an  extinct  species,  as  a  still  animate  Dodo,  as 
a  lordly  Mohican  who  has  outlived  his  tribe,  this  isolated 
counselor  of  Her  Gracious  Majesty  is  watched  by  heed- 
ful eyes  whenever  he  crosses  his  threshold.  In  the 
morning,  as  he  paces  from  his  dwelling  to  chambers,  his 
way  down  Doughty-street  and  John-street,  and  througli 
Gray's  Inn  Gardens,  is  guarded  by  men  anxious  for  his 
safety.  Shreds  of  orange  peel  are  whisked  from  the 
pavement  on  which  he  is  about  to  tread;  and  when  he 
crosses  Holborn  he  walks  between  those  who  would  im- 
peril their  lives  to  rescue  him  from  danger.  The  gate- 
keeper in  Doughty-street  daily  makes  him  low  obeisance, 
knowing  the  historic  value  and  interest  of  his  courtly 
presence.  Occasionally  the  inhabitants  of  Mecklenburgh- 
square  whisper  a  fear  that  some  sad  morning  their  O.  C. 
may  flit  away  without  giving  them  a  warning.  Long 
may  it  be  before  the  residents  of  the  "  Old  Law  Quarter  " 
shall  wail  over  the  fulfillment  of  this  dismal  anticipation  ! 


I 


V. 


LOVES   OF   THE    LAWYERS. 


CHAPTER  XXIII. 


"  T  WOULD  compare  the  multitude  of  women  which 
J_  are  to  be  chosen  for  wives  unto  a  bag  full  of 
snakes,  having  among  them  a  single  eel  ;  now  if  a  man 
should  put  his  hand  into  this  bag,  he  may  chance  to  h'ght 
on  the  eel ;  but  it  is  an  hundred  to  one  he  shall  be  stung 
by  a  snake." 

These  words  were  often  heard  from  the  lips  of  that 
honest  judge.  Sir  John  More,  whose  son  Thomas  stirred 
from  brain  to  foot  by  the  bright  eyes,  and  snowy  neck, 
and  flowing  locks  of  cara  Elir:abctJia  (the  cara  Elizabctha 
of  a  more  recent  Tom  Moore  was  "Bessie,  my  darling"') 
— penned  tliose  warm  and  sweet-flowing  verses  which 
delight  scholars  of  the  present  generation,  and  of  which 
the  following  lines  are  neither  the  least  musical  nor  the 
least  characteristic  : — 

"Jam  subit  ilia  dies  quce  ludentem  obtulit  oliiii 
Inter  virgineos  te  mihi  prima  chores. 
Lactea  cum  flavi  decuerunt  colla  capilli, 

Cum  gena  par  nivibus  visa,  labella  rosis  ; 
Cum  tua  perstringunt  oculos  duo  sydera  nostros 
Perque  oculos  intrant  in  mea  corda  meos." 

The  goddess  of  love  played  the  poet  more  than  one 
droll  trick.  Having  approached  her  with  musical  flat- 
tery, he  fled  from  her  with  fear  and  abhorrence.  P^or  a 
time  the  holiest  and  highest  of  human  affections  was  to 


1 68  PLEASAN  TRIES    OF    ENGLISH 

his  darkened  mind  no  more  than  a  carnal  appetite  ;  and 
he  strove  to  conquer  the  emotions  which  he  feared  would 
rouse  within  him  a  riot  of  impious  passions.  With  fast- 
ing and  cruel  discipline  he  would  fain  have  killed  the 
devil  that  agitated  him,  whenever  he  passed  a  pretty  girl 
in  the  street.  As  a  lay  Carthusian,  he  wore  a  hair-shirt 
next  his  skin,  disciplined  his  bare  back  with  scourges, 
slept  on  the  cold  ground  or  a  hard  bench,  and  by  a  score 
other  strong  measures  sought  to  preserve  his  spiritual  by 
ruining  his  bodily  health.  But  nature  was  too  powerful 
for  unwholesome  doctrin-^-  and  usage,  and  before  he 
rashly  took  a  celibatic  vow,  he  knelt  to  fair  Jane  Colt — 
and,  rising,  kissed  her  on  the  lips. 

When  spiritual  counsel  had  removed  his  conscientious 
obiections  to  matrimony,  he  could  not  condescend  to 
marry  for  love,  but  must,  forsooth,  choose  his  wife  in 
obedience  to  considerations  of  compassion  and  mercy. 
Loving  her  younger  sister,  he  paid  his  addresses  to  Jane, 
because  he  shrunk  from  the  injustice  of  putting  the  junior 
above  the  elder  of  the  two  girls.  "Sir  Thomas  having 
determined,  by  the  advice  and  direction  of  his  ghostly 
father,  to  be  a  married  man,  there  was  at  that  time  a 
pleasant  conceited  gentleman  of  an  ancient  family  in 
Essex,  one  Mr.  John  Colt,  of  New  Hall,  that  invited  him 
into  his  house,  being  much  delighted  in  his  company, 
proffering  unto  him  the  choice  of  any  of  his  daughters, 
who  were  young  gentlewomen  of  very  good  carriage,  good 
complexions,  and  very  religiously  inclined;  whose  hon-est 
and  sweet  conversation  and  virtuous,  education  enticed 
Sir  Thomas  not  a  little  ;  and  although  his  affection  most 
served  him  to  the  second,  for  that  he  thought  her  the 
fairest  and  best  favored,  yet  when  he  thought  within 
himself  that  it  would  be  a  grief  and  some  blemish  to  the 
eldest  to  have  the  younger  sister  preferred  before  her,. 
he,  out  of  a  kind  compassion,  settled  his  fancy  upon  the 


COURTS    AND     LAWYERS.  169 

eldest,   and   soon   after  married  her  with  all  his  friends' 
good  liking." 

The  marriage  was  a  fairly  happy  union,  but  its  dura- 
tion was  short.  After  giving  birth  to  four  children,  Jane 
died,  leaving  the  young  husband,  who  had  instructed  her 
sedulously,  to  mourn  her  sincerely.  That  his  sorrow  was 
poignant  may  be  easily  believed  ;  for  her  death  deprived 
him  of  a  docile  pupil,  as  well  as  a  dutiful  wife. 

"Virginem  duxitadmodem  puellam,"  Erasmus  says  of 
his  friend,  "  claro  genere  natum,  rudem  adhuc  utpote 
ruri  inter  parentes  ac  sorrores  semper  habitam,  quo  magis 
illi  liceret  illam  ad  suos  mores  fingere.  Hanc  et  literis 
instrucndam  curavit,  et  omni  musices  genere  doctam 
reddidit."  Here  is  another  insight  into  the  considera- 
tions which  brought  about  the  marriage.  When  lie  set 
out  in  search  of  a  wife,  he  wished  to  capture  a  simple, 
unsophisticated,  untaught  country  girl,  whose  ignorance 
of  the  world  should  incline  her  to  rely  on  his  superior 
knowledge,  and  the  deficiencies  of  whose  intellectual 
training  should  leave  him  an  ample  field  for  educational 
experiments.  Seeking  this  he  naturally  turned  his  steps 
towards  the  eastern  counties;  and  in  Essex  he  found  the 
young  lady,  who  to  the  last  learnt  with  intelligence  and 
zeal  the  lessons  which  he  set  her. 

More's  second  choice  of  a  wife  was  less  fortunate  than 
his  first.  Wanting  a  woman  to  take  care  of  his  children 
and  preside  over  his  rather  numerous  establishment,  he 
made  an  ofler  to  a  widow,  named  Alice  Middleton. 
Plain  and  homely  in  appearance  and  taste.  Mistress  Alice 
would  have  been  invaluable  to  Sir  Thomas  as  a  superior 
domestic  servant,  but  his  good  judgment  and  taste  de- 
serted him  when  he  decided  to  make  her  a  closer  com- 
panion. Bustling,  keen,  loquacious,  tart,  the  good  dame 
scolded  servants  and  petty  tradesmen  with  admirable 
effect ;  but  even  at  this  distance  of  time  the  sensitive  ear 


I70  PLEASANTRIES    OF    ENGLISH 

is  pained  by  her  sharp,  garrulous  tongue,  when  its  acer- 
bity and  virulence  are  turned  against  her  pacific  and 
scholarly  husband.  A  smile  follows  the  recollection  that 
he  endeavored  to  soften  her  manners  and  elevate  her 
nature  by  a  system  of  culture  similar  to  that  by  which 
Jane  Colt,  "admodum  puella,"  had  been  formed  and 
raised  into  a  polished  gentlewoman.  Past  forty  years  of 
age,  Mistress  Alice  was  required  to  educate  herself  anew, 
Erasmus  assures  his  readers  that,  "  though  verging  on  old 
age,  and  not  of  a  yielding  temper,"  she  was  prevailed 
upon  "  to  take  lessons  on  the  lute,  the  cithara,  the  viol, 
the  monochord,  and  the  flute,  which  she  daily  practiced  to 
him." 

It  has  been  the  fashion  with  biographers  to  speak 
bitterly  of  this  poor  woman,  and  to  pity  More  for  his 
cruel  fate  in  being  united  to  a  termagant.  No  one  has 
any  compassion  for  her.  Sir  Thomas  is  the  victim  ; 
Mistress  Alice  the  shrill  virago.  In  these  days,  when 
every  historic  reprobate  finds  an  apologist,  is  there  no  one 
to  say  a  word  in  behalf  of  the  Widow  Middleton,  whose 
lot  in  life  and  death  seems  to  this  writer  very  pitiable? 
She  was  quick  in  temper,  slow  in  brain,  domineering, 
awkward.  To  rouse  sympathy  for  such  a  woman  is  no 
easy  task;  but  if  wretchedness  is  a  title  to  compassion. 
Mistress  Alice  has  a  right  to  charity  and  gentle  usage. 
It  ivas  not  her  fault  that  she  could  not  sympathize  with 
her  grand  husbauii,  in  his  studies  and  tastes,  his  lofty  life 
and  voluntary  death  ;  it  ze^czi' her  misfortune  that  his  steps 
traversed  plains  high  above  her  own  moral  and  intellect- 
ual level.  By  social  theory  they  were  intimate  com- 
panions ;  in  reality,  no  man  and  woman  in  all  England 
were  wider  apart.  From  his  elevation  he  looked  down 
on  her  with  commiseration  that  was  heightened  by  curi- 
osity and  amazement  ;  and  she  daily  writhed  under  his 
gracious  condescension  and  passionless  urbanity;  undei 


i 


COURTS    AND     LAWYERS.  171- 

her  own  consciousness  of  inferiority  and  consequent  self- 
scorn.  He  could  no  more  synjpathize  with  her  petty 
aims,  than  she  with  his  high  views  and  ambitions  ;  and 
conjugal  sympathy  was  far  more  necessary  to  her  than 
to  him.  His  studious  friends  and  clever  children  afforded 
him  an  abundance  of  human  fellowship  ;  his  public  cares 
and  intellectual  pursuits  gave  him  constant  diversion. 
He  stood  in  such  small  need  of  her,  that  if  some  benevo- 
lent fairy  had  suddenly  endowed  her  with  grace,  wisdom, 
and  understanding,  the  sum  of  his  satisfaction  would  not 
have  been  percepiibly  altered.  Bat  apart  from  him  she 
had  no  sufficient  enjoyments.  His  genuine  companion- 
ship was  requisite  for  her  happiness  ;  but  for  this  society 
nature  had  endowed  her  with  no  fitness.  In  the  case  of 
an  unhappy  marriage,  where  the  unhappiness  is  net 
caused  by  actual  misconduct,  but  is  solely  due  to  incon- 
gruity of  tastes  and  capacities,  it  is  cruel  to  assume  that 
the  superior  person  of  the  ill-assorted  couple  has  the 
stronger  claim  to  sympathy. 

Finding  his  wife  less  tractable  than  he  wished,  More 
withheld  his  confidence  from  her,  taking  the  most  impor- 
tant steps  of  his  life,  without  either  asking  for  her  advice, 
or  even  announcing  the  course  which  he  was  about  to 
take.  His  resignation  of  the  seals  was  announced  to  her 
on  the  day  after  his  retirement  from  office,  and  in  a 
manner  which,  notwithstanding  its  drollery,  would  greatly 
pain  any  woman  of  ordinary  sensibility.  The  day  follow- 
ing the  date  of  his  resignation  was  a  holiday;  and  in  ac- 
cordance with  his  usage,  the  ex-Chancellor,  together  with 
his  household,  attended  service  in  Chelsea  Church.  On 
her  way  to  church  Lady  More  returned  the  greetings  of 
her  friends  with  a  stateliness  not  unseemly  at  that  cere- 
monious time  in  one  who  was  the  ladx'of  the  Lord  High 
Chancellor.  ;\t  the  conclusion  of  service,  ere  she  left 
her  pew,  the  intelligence  was  broken  to  her  in  a  jest  that 


172  PLEASANTRIES    OE    ENGLISH 

she  had  lost  her  cherished  dignity.  "And  whereas  upon 
the  holydays  during  his  High  Chancellorship  one  of  his 
gentlemen,  when  the  service  of  the  church  was  done, 
ordinarily  used  to  come  to  my  lady  his  wife's  pew-door, 
and  say  unto  her,  ''Madam,  my  lord  is  gone,''  he  came 
into  my  lady  his  wife's  pew  himself,  and  making  a  low 
courtesy,  said  unto  her,  "  Madam,  my  lord  is  gone,"  which 
she,  imagining  to  be  but  one  of  his  jests,  as  he  used 
many  unto  her,  he  sadly  affirmed  unto  her  that  it 
was  true.  This  was  the  way  he  thought  fittest  to  break 
the  matter  unto  his  wife,  who  \\'as  full  of  sorrow  to 
hear  it." 

Equally  humorous  and  pathetic  was  that  memorable 
interview  between  More  and  his  wife  in  the  Tower,  when 
she,  regarding  his  position  by  the  lights  with  which 
nature  had  endowed  her,  counseled  him  to  yield  even  at 
that  late  moment  to  the  king.  "  What  the  goodyear, 
Mr.  More!"  she  cried,  bustling  up  to  the  tranquil  and 
courageous  man.  "  I  marvel  that  you,  who  have  been 
hitherto  always  taken  for  a  wise  man,  will  now  so  play 
the  fool  as  to  lie  here  in  this  close,  filthy  prison,  and  be 
content  to  be  shut  up  thus  with  mice  and  rats,  when  you 
might  be  abroad  at  your  liberty,  with  the  favor  and 
good-w'ill  both  of  the  king  and  his  council,  if  you  would 
but  do  as  the  bishops  and  best  learned  of  his  realm  have 
done  ;  and,  seeing  you  have  at  Chelsea  a  right  fair  house, 
your  library,  your  books,  your  gallery,  and  all  other 
necessaries  so  handsome  about  you,  where  you  might,  in 
company  with  me,  your  wife,  your  children,  and  house- 
hold, be  merr\',  I  muse  what,  in  God's  name,  you  mean, 
here  thus  fondly  to  tarry."  Having  heard  her  out — pre- 
serving his  good-humor,  he  said  to  her,  with  a  cheerful 
countenance,  "  I  pray  thee,  good  Mrs.  Alice,  tell  me  one 
thing!"  "  What  is  it,"  saith  she.  "Is  not  this  house 
as  near  heaven  as  my  own  ?" 


^  COURTS    AND     LAWYERS.  173 

Sir  Thomas  More  was  looking  towards  heaven. 
Mistress    Alice    had    her    eye    upon    the    "  right    fair 
house  "  at  Chelsea. 


CHAPTER  XXIV. 


AMONGST  the  eminent  men  who  are  frequently 
mentioned  as  notorious  suitors  for  the  personal 
affection  of  Queen  Elizabeth,  a  conspicuous  place  is 
awarded  to  Hatton,  by  the  scandalous  memoirs  of  his 
time,  and  the  romantic  traditions  of  later  ages.  Histo- 
rians of  the  present  generation  have  accepted  without 
suspicion  the  story  that  Hatton  was  Elizabeth's  amorous 
courtier,  that  the  fanciful  letters  of  ''  Lydds  "  were  fer- 
vent solicitations  for  response  to  his  passion,  that  he  won 
her  favor  and  his  successive  promotions  by  timely  exhi- 
bition of  personal  grace  and  steady  perseverance  in  flat- 
tery. Campbell  speaks  of  the  Queen  and  her  chancellor 
as  "  lovers  ;"  and  the  view  of  the  historian  has  been  up- 
held by  novelists  and  dramatic  writers. 

The  writer  of  this  page  ventures  to  reject  a  story  which 
"s  not  consistent  with  truth,  and  casts  a  dark  suspicion 
on  her  who  was  not  more  powerful  as  a  queen  than  vir- 
tuous as  a  woman. 

For  illustrations  of  lover's  pranks  amongst  the  Eliza- 
bethan lawyers,  the  reader  must  pass  to  two  great 
judges,  the  inferior  of  whom  was  a  far  greater  man  than 
Christopher  Hatton.  Rivals  in  law  and  politics.  Bacon 
and  Coke  were  also  rivals  in  love.  Having  wooed  the 
same  proud,  lovely,  capricious,  violent  woman,  the  one 
wa?  blessed  with  failure,  and  the  other  was  cursed  with 
success. 


174  PLEASANTRIES     OF    ENGLISH  ♦ 

Until  a  revolution  in  the  popular  estimate  of  Bacon 
was  effected  b\-  Mr.  Hepworth  Dixon's  vindication  of 
that  great  man,  it  was  generally  believed  that  love  was 
no  appreciable  element  in  his  nature.  Delight  in  vain 
display  occupied  in  his  affection  the  place  which  should 
have  been  held  by  devotion  to  womanly  beauty  and 
goodness  ;  he  had  sneered  at  love  in  an  essay,  and  his 
cold  heart  never  rebelled  against  the  doctrine  of  his 
clever  brain  ;  he  wooed  his  notorious  cousin  for  the  sake 
of  power,  and  then  married  Alice  Barnham  for  money. 
Such  was  tlie  theory,  the  most  solid  foundation  of  which 
was  a  humorous  treatise,'  misread  and  misapplied. 

The  lady's  wealth,  rank,  and  personal  attractions  were 
in  truth  the  only  facts  countenancing  the  suggestion  that 
Francis  Bacon  proffered  suit  to  his  fair  cousin  from 
interested  motives.  Notwithstanding  her  defects  of 
temper,  no  one  denies  that  she  was  a  woman  qualified 
by  nature  to  rouse  the  passions  of  man.  A  wit  and 
beauty,  she  was  mistress  of  the  arts  which  heighten  the 
powers  of  feminine  tact  and  loveliness.  The  daugliter 
of  Sir  Thomas  Cecil,  the  grandchild  of  Lord  Burleigh, 
she  was  Francis  Bacon's  near  relation  ;  and  though 
the  Cecils  were  not  inclined  to  help  hiin  to  fortune,  he  was 
nevertheless  one  of  their  connection,  and  consequently 
often   found   himself    in   familiar   conversation   with  the 

'  To  readers  who  have  no  sense  of  humor  and  irony,  the  essay  "  Of 
Love  "  unquestionably  i;ives  countenance  to  the  theoiy  that  I:  rancis  Hacon 
was  cold  and  passionless  in  all  that  concerned  woman.  Of  the  many  strange 
constructions  put  upon  this  essay,  not  the  least  amusing  and  perverse  is  that 
which  would  make  it  a  piece  of  adroit  flattery  to  Elizabeth,  who  never  per- 
mitted love  '■  to  check  with  business,"  though  she  is  represented  to  have 
used  it  as  a  diversion  in  idle  moments.  If  Sir  Thomas  More's  "  Utopia'' 
had  been  published  a  quarter  of  a  century  after  151S  (the  date  of  iis  appc-ar- 
ance),  a  similar  construction  would  have  been  put  on  the  passage  which 
uiges  that  lovers  should  not  be  bound  by  an  indissoluble  tie  of  wedlock,  un- 
til mutual  inspection  had  sati>tletl  each  of  the  contracting  parlies  that  the 
other  does  not  labor  under  any  grave  personal  defect.  If  it  were  possible  t  j 
regard  the  passage  containing  tiiis  proposal  as  an  inierpolation  in  the  original 
romance,  it  might  then  be  regard  as  an  attempt  to  palliate  Henry  Vlli.'s 
conduct  to  Anne  of  Clevcs. 


COURTS    AND     LAWYERS.  175 

brii^ht  and  fascinating  woman.  Doubtless  she  played 
with  him,  persuading  herself  that  she  merely  treated  him 
with  cousinly  cordiality,  when  she  was  designedly 
making  him  her  lover.  The  marvel  was  that  she  did 
not  give  him  her  hand  ;  that  he  sought  it  is  no  occasion 
for  surprise — or  for  insinuations  that  he  coveted  her 
wealth.  Biography  is  b}^  turns  mischievously  commu- 
cative  and  vexatiously  silent.  That  Bacon  loved  Sir 
William  Hatton's  widow,  and  induced  Essex  to  support 
his  suit,  and  that  rejecting  him  she  gave  herself  to  his 
enemy,  we  know  ;  but  history  tells  us  nothing  of  the 
secret  struggle  which  preceded  the  lady's  resolution  to 
become  the  wife  of  an  unalluring,  ungracious,  peevish, 
middle-aged  widower.  She  must  have  felt  some  ten- 
derness for  her  cousin,  whose  comeliness  spoke  to  every 
eye,  whose  wit  was  extolled  by  every  lip.  Perhaps  she, 
like  many  others,  had  misread  the  essay  "  Of  Love,"  and 
felt  herself  bound  in  honor  to  bring  the  philosopher  to 
his  knees  at  her  feet.  It  is  credible  that  from  the  outset 
of  their  sentimental  intercourse  she  intended  to  win  and 
then  to  flout  him.  But  coquetry  can  not  conquer  the 
first  laws  of  human  feeling.  To  be  a  good  flirt  a  woman 
must  have  nerve  and  a  sympathetic  nature;  and  doubt- 
less the  flirt  in  this  instance  paid  for  her  triumph  with 
the  smart  of  a  lasting  wound.  It  is  fanciful  to  argue 
that  her  subsequent  violence  and  misconduct,  her  im- 
patience of  control  and  scandalous  disrespect  for  her 
aged  husband,  may  have  been  in  some  part  due  to  the 
sacrifice  of  personal  inclination  which  she  made  in  accept- 
ing Coke  at  the  entreaty  of  prudent  and  selfish  relations 
— and  to  the  contrast,  perpetually  haunting  her,  between 
what  she  was  as  Sir  Edward's  termagant  partner,  and 
what  she  might  have  been  as  Francis  Bacon's  wife? 

She  consented   to  a  marriage  with  Edward   Coke,   but 
was  so  ashamed   of  her   choice  that   she  insisted  on  a 


176  PLEASANTRIES    OF     ENGLISH 

private  celebration  of  their  union,  although  Archbishop 
Whitgift  had  recently  raised  his  voice  against  the  scandal 
of  clandestine  weddings,  and  had  actually  forbidden 
them.  In  the  face  of  the  primate's  edict  the  ill-assorted 
couple  were  united  in  wedlock,  without  license  or  publi- 
cation of  banns,  by  a  country  parson,  who  braved  the 
displeasure  of  Whitgift,  in  order  that  he  might  secure 
the  favor  of  a  secular  patron.  The  wedding-day  was 
November  24,  1598,  the  bridegroom's  first  wife  having 
been  buried  on  the  24th  of  the  previous  July.'  On 
learning  the  violation  of  his  orders,  the  archbishop  was 
so  incensed  that  he  resolved  to  excommunicate  the 
offenders,  and  actually  instituted  for  that  purpose  legal 
proceedings,  which  were  not  dropped  until  bride  and 
bridegroom  humbly  sued  for  pardon,  pleading  ignorance 
of  law  in  excuse  of  their  misbehavior. 

The  scandalous  consequences  of  that  marriage  are 
known  to  every  reader  who  has  laughed  over  the  more 
pungent  and  comic  scenes  of  English  history.  Whilst 
Lady  Hatton  gave  masques  and  balls  in  the  superb  palace 
which  came  into  her  possession  through  marriage  with 
Sir  Christopher  Hatton's  nephew.  Coke  lived  in  his 
chambers,  working  at  cases  and  writing  the  books  which 
are  still  carefully  studied  by  every  young  man  who  wishes 
to  make  himself  master  of  our  law.  In  private  they  had 
perpetual  squabbles,  and  they  quarreled  with  equal 
virulence  and  indecency  before  the  world.     The  matri- 

'  When  due  allowance  has  been  made  for  the  difference  between  the 
usages  of  the  sixteenth  century  and  the  present  time,  decency  was  signally 
violated  by  this  marriage  which  followed  so  soon  upon  Mrs.  Coke's  death, 
and  still  sooner  upon  the  death  of  Lady  Hatton's  famous  grandfather,  at 
whose  funeral  the  lawyer  made  the  first  overtures  for  her  hand.  Mrs.  Coke 
died  June  27,  i;q8,  and  was  buried  at  Huntingfield,  Co.  Suffolk,  July  24, 
1593.  Lord  Burleigh  expired  on  August  4,  of  the  same  year.  Coke's  first 
marriage  was  not  unhappy  ;  and  on  the  death  of  his  wife  by  that  union,  he 
wrote  in  his  note  book  : — "  Most  i^eloved  and  most  excellent  wife,  slie  well 
and  happily  lived,  and,  as  a  true  handmaid  of  the  Lord,  fell  asleep  in  the 
Lord,  and  now  lives  and  reigns  in  heaven."  In  after  years  he  often  wish'^c 
most  cordially  that  he  could  say  as  tnuch  for  his  second  wife. 


COURTS    AND    LAWYERS.  \ii 

monial  settlement  of  their  only  and  ill-starred  daughter 
was  the  occasion  of  an  outbreak  on  the  part  of  husband 
and  wife,  that  not  only  furnished  diversion  for  courtiers 
but  agitated  the  council  table.  Of  all  the  comic  scenes 
connected  with  that  nws^Qmiy  fracas,  not  the  Itast  laugh- 
able and  characteristic  was  the  grand  festival  of  recon- 
ciliation at  Flatton  House,  when  Lady  Hatton  received 
the  king  and  queen  in  Holborn,  and  expressly  forbade 
her  husband  to  presume  to  show  himself  among  her 
guests.  "  The  expectancy  of  Sir  Edward's  rising,"  says 
a  writer  of  the  period,'  "  is  much  abated  by  reason  of 
his  lady's  liberty,  who  was  brought  in  great  honor  to 
Exeter  House  by  my  Lord  of  Buckingham  from  Sir 
William  Craven's,  whither  she  had  been  remanded,  pre- 
sented by  his  lordship  to  the  king,  received  gracious 
usage,  reconciled  to  her  daughter  by  his  Majesty,  and 
her  house  in  Holborn  enlightened  by  his  presence  at  a 
dinner,  where  there  was  a  royal  feast  ;  and  to  make  it 
more  absolutely  her  own,  express  commanthnent  given 
by  her  ladyship  that  neither  Sir  Edward  Coke  nor  any 
of  his  servants  should  be  admitted."  ^ 

'  Su-afford's  Letters  and  Dispatches,  i.  5. 

'Lady  Hatton  never  used  her  second  husband's  name  either  before 
or  after  his  knighthood.  A  good  case,  touching  the  customary  right 
of  a  married  lady  to  bear  the  name,  and  take  lier  title  from  the  rank 
of  a  former  husband,  is  that  of  Sir  Dudley  North,  Charles  IL's  notorious 
sheriff  of  London.  The  son  of  an  English  peer,  he  married  Lady  Gun- 
ning, the  widow  of  a  wealthy  civic  knight,  and  daughter  of  Sir  Robert 
Cann,  "  a  morose  old  merchant  of  Bristol  " —  the  same  magistrate 
whom  Judge  Jeffreys,  in  terms  not  less  just  than  emphatic,  uubraidtd 
for  his  connection  with,  or,  to  speak  moderately,  his  connivance  at,  the 
Bristol  kidnappers.  It  might  be  thought  that  the  merchant's  daughter,  on 
her  mairiage  with  a  peer's  son,  would  be  well  content  to  relinquish  the  title 
of  Lady  Gunning  ;  liut  Is-Oger  North  tells  us  that  his  biotiier  Dudley  ac- 
cepted knighthood,  in  order  that  he  might  avoid  giving  offense  to  the  city, 
and  also,  in  order  that  his  wife  might  be  called  Lady  North,  and  not  Lady 
Gunning. —  Vide  Life  of  the  Hon.  Sir  Dudley  North.  After  Sir  Thomas 
Wilde  (subsequently  Lord  Truro)  married  Augusta  Emma  d'Este,  llie 
daughter  of  the  Duke  of  Sussex  and  Lady  Augusta  Murray,  that  lady,  of 
whose  legitimacy  Sir  Thomas  had  vainly  endeavored  to  convince  the  House 
of  Lords,  retained  her  maiden  surname.  Li  society  she  was  generally  known 
as  the  Princess  d'Este  ;  and  the  bilious  satirists  of  the  Luis  of  Court  used  to 
I. — 12 


178  PLEASANTRIES    OF    ENGLISH 

If  tradition  may  be  credited,  the  law  is  greatly  indebted 
to  the  class  of  women  whom  it  was  our  forefathers'  bar- 
barous wont  to  punish  with  the  ducking-stool.  Had 
Coke  been  happy  in  his  second  marriage,  it  is  assumed 
that  he  would  have  spent  more  time  in  pleasure  and  fewer 
hours. at  his  desk,  that  the  suitors  in  his  court  would 
have  had  less  careful  decisions,  and  that  posterity  would 
have  been  favored  with  fewer  reports.  If  the  inference 
is  just,  society  may  point  to  the  commentary  on  Little- 
ton, and  be  thankful  for  the  lady's  unhappy  temper  and 
sharp  tongue.  In  like  manner  the  wits  of  the  following 
century  maintained  that  Holt's  steady  application  to 
business  was  a  consequence  of  domestic  misery.  The 
lady  who  ruled  his  house  in  Bedford-row  is  said  to  have 
been  such  a  virago  that  the  Chief  Justice  frequently  re- 
tired to  his  chambers,  in  order  that  he  might  place 
himself  be\'ond  reach  of  her  voice.  Amongst  the  good 
stories  told  of  Radcliffe,  the  Tory  physician,  is  the  tradi- 
tion of  his  boast  that  he  kept  Lady  Holt  ah've  out  of  pure 
political  animosity  to  the  Whig  Chief  Justice.     Another 

speak  of  Sir  Thomas  as  "  the  Prince."  It  was  said  that  one  of  Wilde's 
familiar  associates,  soon  after  the  lawyer's  marriage,  called  at  his  house  and 
asked  if  the  Princess  d'Este  was  at  home.  "  No,  sir,"  replied  the  servant, 
"  the  Princess  d'Este  is  not  at  home,  but  the  Prince  is  !  "  That  this  malicious 
story  obtained  a  wide  currency  is  not  wonderful  ;  that  it  is  a  trutliful  anecdote 
the  writer  of  this  book  would  not  like  to  pledge  his  credit.  The  case  of  Sir 
John  Campbell  and  Lady  Siratheden  was  a  notable  instance  of  a  lawyer  and 
his  wile  bearing  different  names.  Raised  to  the  peerage,  with  the  title  of 
Baroness  Stratheden,  the  first  Lord  Abinger's  eldest  daughter  was  indebted 
to  her  husband  for  an  honor  that  made  him  her  social  inferior.  Many 
readers  will  remember  a  droll  story  of  a  misapprehension  caused  by  her  lady- 
ship's title.  During  an  othcial  journey,  Sir  John  Campbell  and  Baroness 
Stratheden  slept  at  lodgings  which  he  had  frequently  occupied  as  a  circuiteer. 
On  the  mo.ning  after  his  arrival,  the  landlady  obtained  a  special  interview 
with  Campbell,  and  in  the  baroness's  absence  thus  addressed  him,  with 
mingled  indignaliin  and  respectfulness  : — "  Sir  John  Campbell,  I  am  a  lone 
widow,  and  live  by  my  good  name.  It  is  not  in  my  humble  place  to  be  too 
curious  about  the  ladies  brought  to  my  lodgings  by  counselors  and  judges. 
It  is  not  in  me  to  make  remarks  if  a  counselor's  lady  changes  the  color  of 
h.r  eyes  and  her  complexion  every  assizes.  But,  Sir  John,  a  gentleman 
ought  not  to  bring  a  lady  to  a  lone  widow's  lodgings,  unless  so  long  as  he 
'  okkipies  "  the  apartments  he  makes  all  honorable  professions  tt  at  the  lady 
is  his  wife,  and  as  such  gives  her  the  use  of  his  name." 


COURTS    AND     LAWYERS.  179 

eminent  lawyer,  over  whose  troubles  people  have  made 
merry  in  the  same  fashion,  was  Jeffrey  Gilbert,  Baron  of 
the  Exchequer.  At  his  death,  October  14,  1 726,  this 
'earned  Judge  left  behind  him  that  mass  of  reports,  his- 
tories, and  treatises  by  which  he  is  known  as  one  of  the 
most  luminous  as  well  as  voluminous  of  legal  writers. 
None  of  his  works  passed  through  the  press  during  his 
life,  and  when  their  number  and  value  were  discovered 
after  his  departure  to  another  world,  it  was  whispered  that 
they  had  been  composed  in  hours  of  banishment  from 
a  hearth  where  a  scolding  ivife  made  misery  for  all  who 
came  within  the  range  of  her  querulous  notes. 

Disappointed  in  his  suit  to  his  beautiful  and  domineer- 
ing cousin.  Bacon  let  some  five  or  six  years  pass  before 
he  allowed  his  thoughts  again  to  turn  to  love,  and  then 
he  wooed  and  waited  for  nearly  three  years  more,  ere  on 
a  bright  May  day  he  met  Alice  Barnham,  in  Marylebone 
Chapel,  and  made  her  his  wife  in  the  presence  of  a 
courtly  company.  In  the  July  of  1603,  he  wrote  to 
Cecil  : — "  For  this  divulged  and  almost  prostituted  title 
of  knighthood.  I  could,  without  charge  by  your  honor's 
mean,  be  content  to  have  it,  both  because  of  this  late 
disgrace,  and  because  I  have  three  new  knights  in  my 
mess  in  Grey's  Inn  Commons,  and  because  I  have  found 
out  an  alderman's  daughter,  a  handsome  maiden,  to  my 
liking.  So  as  if  your  honor  will  find  the  time,  I  will 
come  to  the  court  from  Gorhambury  upon  any  warning." 
This  expression,  "an  alderman's  daughter,"  contributed 
greatl}',  if  it  did  not  give  rise  to,  the  misapprehension 
that  Bacon's  marriage  was  a  mercenary  arrangement. 
I  1  these  later  times  the  social  status  of  an  alderman  is  so 
much  beneath  the  rank  of  a  distinguished  member  of  tlie 
bar,  that  a  successful  queen's  counsel  who  should  make  an 
oiler  to  the  daughter  of  a  city  magistrate  would  be  re- 
garded  as  bent   upon   a  decidedly  unambitious  match 


i8o  PLEASANTRIES     OF    ENGLISH. 

and  if  in  a  significant  tone  he  spoke  of  the  lady  as  "an 
alderman's  daughter,"  his  words  might  be  reasonably 
construed  as  a  hint  that  her  fortune  atoned  for  her  want 
of  rank.  But  it  never  occurred  to  Bacon's  contemporaries 
to  put  such  a  construclion  on  the  announcement.  Far 
from  using  the  words  in  an  apologetic  manner,  the  lover 
meant  them  to  express  concisely  that  Alice  Barnham  was 
a  lady  of  suitable  condition  to  bear  a  title  as  well  as  to 
become  his  bride.  Cecil  regarded  them  merely  as  an 
assurance  that  his  relative  meditated  a  suitable  and  even 
advantageous  alliance,  just  as  any  statesman  of  the  pres- 
ent day  would  read  an  announcement  that  a  kinsman, 
making  his  way  in  the  law  courts,  intended  to  marry  "  an 
admiral's  daughter,"  or  a  "  bishop's  daughter."  That  it 
was  the  reverse  of  a  mercenary  marriage,  Mr.  Hepworth 
Dixon  has  indisputably  proved  in  his  eighth  chapter  of 
"  The  Story  of  Lord  Bacon's  Life,"  where  he  contrasts 
Lady  Bacon's  modest  fortune  with  her  husband's  per- 
sonal acquisitions  and  prospects. 


CHAPTER  XXV. 


NO  lawyer  of  the   Second  Charles's  time  surpassed 
Francis   North    in   love  of  money,  or  was  more 
firmly  resolved   not  to   marry,  without   due  and 
substan;ial  consideration. 

His  first  proposal  was  for  the  daughter  of  a  Gray's 
Inn  money-lender.  Usury  was  not  a  less  contemptible 
vocation  in  the  seventeenth  century  than  it  is  at  the 
present  time  ;  and  most  young  barristers  of  gentle  descent 
and  fair  prospects  would  have  preferred  any  lot  to  the 
degradation  of  marriage  with  the  child  of  the  most 
fortunate  usurer  in  Charles  H.'s  L^   -.^on.    But  the  Hon- 


COURTS    AND     LAWYERS-.  iSi 

orable  Francis  North  was  placed  comfortably /;« ;/(<?//;  the 
prejudices  of  his  order  and  time  of  life.  He  was  q{  noble 
birth,  but  quite  ready  to  marry  into  a  plebeian  famil}-: 
he  was  young,  but  loved  money  more  than  aught  else. 
So  his  hearing  was  quickened  and  his  blood  beat  merrily 
wlien,  one  fine  morning,  "there  came  to  him  a  recom- 
mendation of  a  lady,  who  was  an  only  daughter  of  an  old 
usurer  in  Gray's  Inn,  supposed  to  be  a  good  fortune  in 
present,  for  lur  father  was  rich  ;  but,  after  his  death,  to 
become  worth,  nobody  could  tell  what."  One  would 
like  to  know  how  that  "  recommendation  of  a  lady  " 
reached  the  lawyer's  chambers;  above  all,  who  sent  it? 
"  His  lordship,"  continues  Roger  North,  "  got  a  sight  of 
the  lady,  and  did  not  dislike  her  ;  thereupon  he  made 
the  old  man  a  visit,  and  a  proposal  of  himself  to  marry 
his  daughter."  By  all  means  let  this  ingenuous,  high- 
spirited  Templar  have  fair  judgmen..  He  would  not 
have  sold  himself  to  just  any  woman.  He  required  a 
niaximuui  of  wealth  with  a  viiniiimni  of  personal  repul- 
siveness.  He  therefore  "  took  a  siglit  of  the  lady  "  (it 
does  not  appear  that  he  talked  with  her)  before  he  com- 
mitted himself  irrevocably  by  a  proposal.  The  sigJit 
having  been  taken,  as  he  did  not  dislike  her  (mind,  he 
did  not  positively  like  her)  he  made  the  old  man  a  visit. 
Loving  money,  and  believing  in  it,  this  "  old  man  " 
wished  to  secure  as  much  of  it  as  possible  for  his  only 
child  ;  and  therefore,  looking  keenly  at  the  youthful  ad- 
mirer of  a  usurer's  heiress,  "asked  him  what  estate  his 
father  intended  to  settle  upon  him  for  present  mainte- 
nance, jointure,  and  provision  for  children."  Mildly  and 
not  unjustly  Roger  calls  this  "an  inaupicious  question." 
It  was  so  inauspicious  that  Mr.  Francis  North  abruptly- 
terminated  the  discussion  bv  wishinij  the  usurer  ^ood 
morning.     So  ended  Love  Affair  No.  i. 

Having  lost  his  dear  companion,  Mr.  Edward  Palmer 


u<2  PLEASANTRIES    OF    ENGLISH 

so>n  of  the  powerful  Sir  Geoffry  Palmer,  Mr.  Francis 
Nor:h  soon  reL^Jirdcd  his  friend's  wife  with  tender  long- 
ing. It  was  only  natural  that  he  should  desire  to  miti- 
gate his  sorrow  for  the  dead  by  possession  of  the  woman 
who  was  "  left  a  flourishing  widow,  and  very  rich."  But 
the  lady  knew  her  worth,  as  well  she  might,  for  "  never 
was  lady  more  closely  besieged  with  wooers :  she  had  no 
less  than  five  younger  sons  sat  down  before  her  at  one 
time,  and  she  kept  them  well  in  hand,  as  they  say, 
giving  no  definite  answers  to  any  one  of  them."  Small 
respect  did  Mistress  Edward  Palmer  show  her  late  hus- 
band's most  intimate  friend.  For  weeks  she  tortured 
the  wretched,  knavish  fellow  with  coquettish  tricks,  and 
having  rendered  him  miserable  in  many  ways,  made  him 
ludicrous  by  jilting  him.  "  He  was  held  at  the  long 
saw  above  a  month,  doing  his  duty  as  well  as  he  might, 
and  that  was  but  clumsily  ;  for  he  neither  dressed  nor 
danced,  when  his  rivals  were  adroit  at  both,  and  the  lady 
used  to  shuffle  her  favors  amongst  them  affectedly,  and 
on  purpose  to  mortify  his  lordship,  and  at  tlie  same  time 
be  as  civil  to  him,  with  like  purpose  to  mortify  them." 
Poor  Mr.  Francis!  Well  may  his  brother  write  indig- 
nantly, "  It  was  very  griexous  to  him — that  had  his 
thoughts  upon  his  clients'  concerns,  which  came  in 
thick  upon  him — to  be  held  in  a  course  of  bo-peep  play 
with  a  crafty  widow."  At  length,  "  after  a  clancular 
proceeding,"  this  craft}'  widow,  by  marrying  "  a  jolly 
knight  of  a  good  estate,"  set  her  victims  free;  and  Mr. 
Francis  was  at  liberty  to  look  elsewhere  for  a  lapful  of 
money. 

Roger  North  tells  the  story  of  the  third  affair  so  con- 
cisely and  pithily  that  h^s  exact  words  must  be  put 
before  the  reader: — "  Another  proposition  came  to  his 
lordship,"  writes  the  fraternal  biographer,  giving  P"rancis 
North  credit  for  the  title  he  subsequently  won,  although 


COURTS    AND     LAWYERS.  183 

at  the  time  under  consideration  he  was  plain  Mister 
North,  on  the  keen  lookout  for  the  place  of  Solicitor- 
General,  "  by  a  city  broker,  from  Sir  John  Lawrence, 
Vihohad  many  daughters,  and  those  reputed  beauties; 
and  the  fortune  was  to  be  ^6,000,  His  lordship  went 
and  dined  with  the  alderman,  and  liked  the  lady,  who 
(as  the  way  is)  was  dressed  out  for  a  muster.  And  coming 
to  treat,  the  portion  shrank  to  ^^"5, 000,  and  upon  that  his 
lordship  parted  ;  and  was  not  gone  far  before  Mi.  Broker 
(following)  came  to  him,  and  said  Sir  John  would  give 
/;"500  more  at  the  birth  of  the  first  child  ;  but  that 
would  not  do,  for  his  lordship  hated  such  screwing.  Not 
long  after  this  dispute,  his  lordship  was  made  the  king's 
Solicitor-General,  and  then  the  Broker  came  again,  with 
news  that  Sir  John  would  give  ^10,000.  "  No,"  his 
lordship  said,  "  after  such  usage  he  would  not  proceed  if 
he  might  have  ^20,ooo."  The  intervention  of  the 
broker  in  this  negotiation  is  delightfully  suggestive. 
More  should  have  been  said  about  him  —  his  name, 
.tddress,  and  terms  for  doing  business.  Was  he  paid  for 
his  services  on  ail  that  he  could  save  from  a  certain  sum 
be\'ond  which  his  employer  would  not  advance  a  single 
gold-piece  for  the  disposal  of  his  child  ?  Were  there,  in 
olden  time,  men  who  avowed  themselves  "  Heart  and 
jointure  Brokers,  Agents  for  Lovers  of  both  Sexes,  Con- 
tractors of  Mutual  Attachments,  Wholesale  and  Retail 
Dealers  in  Reciprocal  Affection,  and  General  Referees, 
Respondents,  and  Insurers  in  all  Sentimental  AiTairc, 
Clandestine  or  otherwise  ?  " 

After  these  mischances,  Francis  North  made  an  eligible 
match  under  somewhat  singular  circumstances.  As  co- 
heiresses of  Thomas,  Earl  of  Down,  three  sisters,  the  La- 
dies Pope,  claimed  under  certain  settlements  large  estates 
of  inheritance,  to  which  Lady  Elizabeth  Lee  set  up  a  coun- 
ter-claim.    North,  acting  as  Lady  Elizabeth  Lee's  coun- 


1 84  PLEASANTRIES    OF     ENGLISH 

sel,  effected  a  compromise  which  secured  half  the  property 
in  dispute  to  his  client,  and  diminished  by  one-half  the 
fortunes  to  which  each  of  the  three  suitors  on  the  other 
side  had  maintained  their  right.  Having  tlius  reduced 
the  estate  of  Lady  Frances  Pope  to  a  fortune  estimated 
at  about  i^  14,000,  the  lawyer  proposed  for  her  hand,  and 
was  accepted.  After  his  marriage,  alluding  to  his  exer- 
tions in  behalf  of  Lady  Elizabeth  Lee's  very  disputable 
claim,  he  used  to  say  that  "  he  had  been  counsel  against 
himself;"  but  Roger  North  frankly  admits  that  "if  this 
question  had  not  come  to  such  a  composition,  which 
diminished  the  ladies'  fortunes,  his  brother  had  never 
compassed  his  match." 

It  was  not  without  reluctance  that  the  Countess  of 
Down  consented  to  the  union  of  her  daughter  with  the 
lawyer  who  had  half  ruined  her,  and  who  (though  he  was 
Solicitor-General  and  in  fine  practice)  could  settle  only 
;^6,ooo  upon  the  lady.  "  I  well  remember,"  observes 
Roger,  '•  the  good  countess  had  some  qualms,  and  com- 
plained that  she  knew  not  how  she  could  justify  what 
she  had  done  (meaning  the  marrying  her  daughter  wiiii 
no  better  settlement)."  To  these  qualms  Francis  North, 
with  huv}'er-like  coolness,  answered — •"'  Madam,  if  you 
meet  with  any  question  about  that,  say  that  your 
daughter  has  ^1,000  per  annum  jointure." 

The  marriage  was  celebrated  in  Wroxton  Church ; 
and  after  bountiful  rejoicings  with  certain  loyalist  families 
of  Oxfordshire,  the  happy  couple  went  up  to  London 
and  lived  in  chambers,  until  they  moved  into  a  house  in 
Chancery-lane. 

It  may  surprise  some  readers  of  this  book  to  learn  that 
George  Jeffre\-s,  the  odious  judge  of  the  Bloody  Circuit, 
was  a  successful  gallant.  Tall,  well-shaped,  and  endowed 
by  nature  with  a  pleasant  countenance  and  agreeable 
features,  Jeffreys  was  one  of  the  most  fascinating  men  of 


I 


COURTS    AND    LAWYERS.  185 

his  time.  A  wit  and  a  boii-vh'a)it,  he  could  hit  the  humor 
of  the  roistering  cavaliers  who  surrounded  the  "  merry 
monarch;"  a  man  of  gallantry  and  polite  accomplish- 
ments, he  was  acceptable  to  women  of  society.  The  same 
tongue  that  bullied  from  the  bench,  when  witnesses  were 
perverse  or  counsel  unruly,  could  flatter  with  such 
melodious  affectation  of  sincerity,  that  he  was  known  as  a 
most  delightful  companion.  As  a  musical  connoisseur  he 
spoke  with  authority;  as  a  teller  of  good  stories  he  had 
no  equal  in  town.  Even  those  who  detested  him  did  not 
venture  to  deny  that  in  the  discharge  of  his  judicial 
offices  he  could  at  his  pleasure  assume  a  dignity  and 
urbane  composure  that  well  became  the  seat  of  justice. 
In  short,  his  talents  and  graces  were  so  various  and 
effective,  that  he  would  have  risen  to  the  bench,  even 
if  he  had  labored  under  the  disadvantage  of  pure  morality 
and  amiable  temper. 

Women  declared  him  irresistible.  At  court  he  had 
the  ear  of  Nell  Gwyn  and  the  Duchess  of  Portsmouth — 
the  Protestant  favorite  and  the  Catholic  mistress  ;  and 
before  he  attained  the  privilege  of  entering  Wiutehall  — 
at  a  time  when  his  creditors  were  urgent,  and  his  best 
clients  were  the  inferior  attorneys  of  the  city  courts— he 
Vv'as  loved  by  virtuous  girls.  He  was  still  poor,  unknown, 
and  struggling  with  difficulties,  when  he  induced  an 
heiress  to  accept  his  suit, — the  daughter  of  a  rural  squire 
whose  wine  the  barrister  had  drunk  upon  circuit.  This 
young  lady  was  wooed  under  circumstances  of  peculiar 
difficulty  ;  and  she  promised  to  elope  with  him  if  her 
f-ither  refused  to  receive  him  as  a  son-in-law.  Ill-luck 
befell  the  scheme  ;  and  whilst  }'oung  Jeffreys  was  waiting 
in  the  temple  for  the  letter  which  should  decide  his  move- 
ments, an  intimation  reached  him  that  elopement  was 
impossible  and  union  forbidden.  The  bearer  of  this  bad 
news  was  a  young  lady — the  child  of  a  poor  clergyman  — 


r86  PLEASANTRIES     OE    ENGLISH 

\\hohad  been  the  confidential  friend  and  paid  companion 
of  the  squire's  daughter. 

The  case  was  hard  for  Jeffreys,  cruel  for  the  fair  mes- 
senger. He  had  lost  an  advantageous  match,  she  had 
lost  her  daily  bread.  Furious  with  her  for  having  acted 
as  the  cotijidante  of  the  clandestine  lovers,  the  squire  had 
turned  this  poor  girl  out  of  his  house  ;  and  she  had  come 
to  London  to  seek  for  employment  as  well  as  to  report 
the  disaster. 

Jeffreys  saw  her  overpowered  with  trouble  and  shame 
— penniless  in  the  great  city,  and  disgraced  by  expulsion 
from  her  patron's  roof.  Seeing  that  her  abject  plight 
was  the  consequence  of  amiable  readiness  to  serve  him, 
Jeffre)'s  pitied  and  consoled  her.  Most  young  men 
would  have  soothed  their  consciences  and  dried  the  run- 
ning tears  with  a  gift  of  money  or  a  letter  recommending 
the  outcast  to  a  new  employer.  As  she  was  pretty,  a 
libertine  would  have  tried  to  seduce  lier.  In  Jeffre}'s, 
compassion  roused  a  still  finer  sentiment :  he  loved  the 
poor  girl  and  married  her.  On  May  23,  1667,  Sarah 
Neesham  was  married  to  George  Jeffreys  of  the  Inner 
Temple  ;  and  her  father,  in  proof  of  his  complete  for- 
giveness of  her  escapade,  gave  her  a  fortune  of  iJ^300 — a 
sum  which  the  poor  clergyman  could  not  well  afford  to 
bestow  on  the  newly  married  couple. 

Having  outlived  Sarah  Neesham,  Jeffreys  married  again 
— taking  for  his  second  wife  a  widow  whose  father  was 
Sir  Thomas  Bludworth,  ex-Lord  Mayor  of  London. 
Whether  rumor  treated  her  unjustly  it  is  impossible  to 
say  at  this  distance  of  time;  but  if  reliance  may  be  put 
on  many  broad  stories  current  about  the  lady,  her  conduct 
was  by  no  means  free  from  fault.  Slie  was  reputed  to 
entertain  many  lovers.  Jeffreys  would  have  created  less 
scandal  if,  instead  of  taking  her  to  his  home,  he  had  imi- 
tated the  pious  Sir  Mathew  Hale,  who  married  his  maid- 


COURTS    AND     LAWYERS.  187 

servant,  and  on  being  twitted  by  the  world  with  the  low- 
liness of'his  choice,  silenced  his  censors  with  a  jest. 

Amongst  the  love  affairs  ofseventeenth-century  lawyers 
place  must  be  made  for  mention  of  the  second  wife  whom 
Chief  Justice  Bramston  brought  home  from  Ireland, 
where  she  had  outlived  two  husbands  (the  Bishop  of 
Clogher  and  Sir  John  Brereton),  before  slie  gave  her 
hand  to  the  judge  who  had  loved  her  in  his  boyhood. 
"  When  I  see  her,"  says  tlie  Chief  Justice's  son,  who  de- 
scribes the  expedition  to  Dublin,  and  the  return  to  Lon- 
don, "  I  confess  I  wondered  at  my  father's  love.  She 
was  low,  fatt,  red-faced  ;  her  dress,  too,  was  a  hat  and 
ruff,  which  tho'  she  never  changed  to  death.  But  my 
father,  I  believe,  seeing  me  change  countenance,  told  me 
it  was  not  beautie,  but  virtue,  he  courted.  I  believe  she 
had  been  handsome  in  her  youth  ;  she  had  a  delicate,  fine 
hand,  white  and  plump,  and  indeed  proved  a  good  wife 
and  mother-in-law,  too."  On  her  journey  to  Charles 
I.'s  London,  this  elderly  bride,  in  her  antiquated  attire, 
rode  from  Holyhead  to  Beaumaris  on  a  pillion  behind 
her  step-son.  "  As  she  rode  over  the  sandes,"  records 
her  step-son,  "  behind  mee,  and  pulling  off  her  gloves, 
her  wedding-ringe  fell  off,  and  sunk  instantly.  She 
caused  her  man  to  alight ;  she  sate  still  behind  me,  and 
kept  her  eye  on  the  place,  and  directed  her  man,  but  he 
not  guessing  well,  she  leaped  off,  saying  she  would  not 
stir  without  her  ringe.  It  being  the  most  unfortunate 
thinge  that  could  befall  any  one  to  lose  the  wedding-ringe 
— made  the  man  thrust  his  hand  into  the  sands  (the 
nature  of  which  is  not  to  bear  any  weight  but  passing), 
he  pulled  up  sand,  but  not  the  ringe.  She  made  him 
strip  his  arme,  and  put  it  deeper  into  the  sand,  and 
pulled  up  the  ringe;  and  this  done,  he  and  shee,  and  all 
that  stood  still,  were  sunk  almost  to  the  knees,  but  we 
were  all  pleased  that  the  ringe  was  found." 


1 88  PLEASANTRIES     OF    ENGLISH 

In  the  lei^al  circle  of  Charles  the  Second's  London, 
Lady  King  was  notable  as  a  virago  whose  shrill  tongue 
disturbed  her  husband's  peace  of  mind  by  day,  and  broke 
his  rest  at  niqht.  Earning  a  larger  income  than  any 
other  barrister  of  his  time,  he  had  little  leisure  for  do- 
mestic society;  but  the  few  hours  which  he  could  have 
spent  with  his  wife  and  children,  he  usually  preferred  to 
spend  in  a  tavern,  beyond  the  reach  of  his  lady's  sliarp 
querulousness.  "  All  his  misfortune,"  says  Roger  North, 
"  lay  at  home,  in  a  perverse  consort,  who  always  after  his 
day-labor  done,  entertained  him  with  all  the  chagrin  and 
peevishness  imaginable  ;  so  that  he  went  home  as  to  his 
prison,  or  worse  ;  and  when  the  time  came,  rather  than 
go  home,  he  chose  commonly  to  get  a  friend  to  go  and 
sit  in  a  free  chat  at  the  tavern,  over  a  single  bottle,  tiU 
twelve  or  one  at  night,  and  then  to  work  again  at  five  in 
the  morning.  His  fatigue  in  business,  which,  as  I  said, 
was  more  than  ordinary  to  him,  and  his  no  comfort,  or 
rather,  discomfort  at  home,  and  taking  his  refreshment 
by  excising  his  sleep,  soon  pulled  him  down  ;  so  tha'., 
after  a  short  illness,  he  died."'  On  his  death-bed,  however, 
he  forgave  the  weeping  woman,  who,  more  th  'ou^jji  plij'si- 
cal  irritability  than  wicked  design,  had  caused  him  so 
much  undeserved  discomfort  ;  and  by  his  last  will  and 
testament  he  made  liberal  provision  for  her  wants. 
Having  made  his  will,  "he  said,  I  am  glad  it  is  done," 
runs  the  memoir  of  Sir  John  King,  written  by  his  father, 
"  and  after  took  leave  of  his  wife,  who  was  full  of  tears  ; 
seeing  it  is  the  will  of  God,  let  us  part  quietly  in  friend- 
ship, with  submissiveness  to  His  will,  as  we  came  together 
in  friendship  by  His  will." 


COURTS    AND     LAWYERS.  189 


CHAPTER   XXVI. 

A  COMPLETE  history  of  the  loves  of  lawyers  would 
notice  many  scandalous  intrigues  and  disreputable 
alliances,  and  would  comprise  a  good  deal  of  literature 
for  which  the  student  would  vainly  look  in  the  works  of 
our  best  authors.  From  the  days  of  Wolsey,  whose 
amours  were  notorious,  and  whose  illegitimate  son  became 
Dean  of  Wells,  down  to  the  present  time  of  brighter 
though  not  unimpeachable  morality,  the  domestic  lives 
of  our  eminent  judges  and  advocates  have  too  frequently 
invited  satire  and  justified  regret.  In  the  eighteenth  cen- 
tury, judges,  without  any  loss  oi  caste  or  popular  regard, 
openly  maintained  establishments  that  in  th-ese  more 
decorous  and  actually  better  days  would  cover  their 
keepers  with  obloqu}-.  Attention  could  be  directed  to 
more  than  one  legal  family  in  which  the  descent  must 
be  traced  through  a  succession  of  illegitimate  births.  Not 
only  did  eminent  lawyers  live  openly  with  women  who 
were  not  their  wives,  and  with  children  whom  the  law 
declined  to  recognize  as  their  offspring ;  but  these 
women  and  children  moved  in  good  society,  apparently 
indifferent  to  shame  that  brought  upon  them  but  few  in- 
conveniences. In  Great  Ormond-street,  where  a  mistress 
and  several  illegitimate  children  formed  liis  family  circle, 
Lord  Thurlow  was  visited  by  bishops  and  deans;  and  it 
is  said  that  in  1806,  when  Sir  James  Mansfield,  Chief 
Justice  of  the  Common  Pleas,  was  invited  to  the  wool- 
sack and  the  peerage,  he  was  induced  to  decline  the  offer 
more  by  consideration  for  his  illegitimate  children  than 
by  fears  for  the  stability  of  the  new  administration. 

Speaking  of  Lord  Thurlow's  undisguised  intercourse 
with  Mrs.  Hervey,  Lord  Campbell  says,  "When  I  first 
knew  the  profession,  it  would  not  have  been  endured  that 


I90  PLEASANTRIES    OE     ENGLISH 

any  one  in  a  judicial  situation  should  have  had  such  a 
domestic  estabh'shment  as  Thurlow's,  but  a  majority  of 
judges  had  married  their  mistresses.  The  undcrstandin<; 
then  was  that  a  man  elevated  to  the  bench,  if  he  had  a 
mistress,  must  either  marry  her  or  put  her  away.  For 
many  years  there  has  been  no  necessity  for  such  an 
alternative."  Either  Lord  Campbell  had  not  the  keen 
appetite  for  professional  gossip,  with  which  he  is  ordi- 
narily credited,  or  his  conscience  must  have  pricked  him 
when  he  wrote,  "  For  many  years  there  has  been  no 
necessity  for  such  an  alternative."  To  show  how  far  his 
lordship  erred  through  want  of  information  or  defect  of 
candor  is  not  the  duty  of  this  page  ;  but  without  making 
any  statement  that  can  wound  private  feeling,  the  pres- 
ent writer  may  observe  that  "the  understanding"  to 
which  Lord  Campbell  draws  attention,  has  affected  the 
fortunes  of  ladies  within  the  present  generation. 

That  the  bright  and  high-minded  Somers  was  the 
debauchee  that  Mrs.  Manley  and  Mr.  Cooksey  would 
have  us  believe  him  is  incredible.  It  is  doubtful  if 
Mackey,  in  his  "  Sketch  of  Leading  Characters  at  the 
English  Court  "  had  sufficient  reasons  for  clouding  his 
sunny  picture  of  the  statesman  with  the  assertion  that 
he  was  "something  of  a  libertine."  But  there  are 
occasions  when  prudence  counsels  us  to  pay  attention 
to  slander. 

Having  raised  himself  to  the  office  of  Solicitor-General, 
Somers,  like  Francis  Bacon,  found  an  alderman's  daughter 
to  his  liking;  and  having  formed  a  sincere  attachment 
for  her,  he  made  his  wishes  known  to  her  father.  Miss 
Anne  Bawdon's  father  was  a  wealthy  merchant,  styled 
Sir  John  Bawdon — a  man  proud  of  his  civic  station  and 
riches,  and  thinking  lightly  of  lawyers  and  law.  When 
Somers  stated  his  property  and  projects,  the  rental  (»f  his 
small  landed  estate  and  the  buoyancy  of  his  professional 


COURTS    AND     LAWYERS.  191 

income,  the  opulent  knight  by  no  means  approved  the 
prospect  offered  to  his  child.  The  lawyer  might  die  in 
the  course  of'twelve  months  ;  in  which  case  the  Worces- 
tershire estate  would  be  still  a  small  estate,  and  the  pro- 
fessional income  would  cease.  In  twelve  months  Mr. 
Solicitor  might  be  proved  a  scoundrel,  for  at  heart  all 
lawyers  were  arrant  rogues;  in  which  case  matters  would 
be  still  worse.  Having  regarded  the  question  from  these 
two  points  of  view,  Sir  John  Bawdon  gave  Somers 
his  dismissal  and  married  Miss  Anne  to  a  rich  Turkey 
merchant.  Three  years  later,  when  Somers  had  risen  to 
the  woolsack,  and  it  was  clear  that  the  rich  Turkey  mer- 
chant would  never  be  anything  grander  than  a  rich  Tur- 
key merchant.  Sir  John  saw  that  he  had  made  a  serious 
blunder,  for  which  his  child  certainly  could  not  thank  him. 
A  goodly  list  might  be  made  of  cases  where  papas  have 
erred  and  repented  in  Sir  John  Bawdon's  fashion.  Sir 
John  Lawrence  would  have  made  his  daughter  a  Lord 
Keeper's  lady  and  a  peeress,  if  he  and  his  broker  had 
dealt  more  liberally  with  Francis  North.  Had  it  not 
been  for  Sir  Joseph  Jekyll's  counsel,  Mr.  Cocks,  the  Wor- 
cestershire squire  would  have  rejected  Philip  Yorke  as  an 
ineligible  suitor,  in  which  case  plain  Mrs.  Lygon  would 
never  have  been  Lady  Hardwicke,  and  worked  her  hus- 
band's twenty  purses  of  state  upon  curtains  and  hangings 
of  crimson  velvet.  And,  if  he  were  so  inclined,  this 
writer  could  point  to  a  learned  judge,  who  in  his  days  of 
"stuff"  and  "guinea  fees"  was  deemed  an  ineligible 
match  for  a  country  apothecary's  pretty  daughter.  The 
country  doctor  being  able  to  give  his  daughter  ;^20,000, 
turned  away  disdainfully  from  the  unknown  "junior,"  who 
five  years  later  was  leading  his  circuit,  and  quickly  rose  to 
the  high  office  which  he  still  fills  to  the  satisfaction  of 
his  country. 

Disappointed  in  his  pursuit  of  Anne  Bawdon,  Somers 


192  PLEASAN  TRIES     OF     ENGLISH 

never  again  made  any  woman  an  offer  of  marriage  ;  but 
scandalous  gossip  accused  him  of  immoral  intcrcours-e 
with  his  housekeeper.  This  woman's  name  was  Bloun"-  ; 
and  while  she  resided  with  the  Chancellor  fame  whispered 
that  her  husband  was  still  living.  Not  only  was  Somers 
charged  with  open  adultery,  but  it  was  averred  that  for 
the  sake  of  peace  he  had  imprisoned  in  a  madhouse  his 
mistress's  lawful  husband,  who  was  originally  a  Worces- 
ter tradesman.  The  chief  authority  for  this  startling  im- 
putation is  Mrs.  Manley,  who  was  encouraged,  if  not  act- 
ually paid,  by  Swift  to  lampoon  his  political  adversaries. 
In  her  "  New  Atalantis  " — the  •'  Cicero  "  of  which  scandal- 
ous work  was  understood  by  its  readers  to  signify"  Lord 
Somers" — this  shameless  woman  entertained  quid-nuncs 
and  women  of  fashion  by  putting  this  abominable  story 
in  written  words,  the  coarseness  of  which  accorded  with 
the  repulsiveness  of  the  accusation. 

At  a  time  when  honest  writers  on  current  politics  were 
punished  with  fine  and  imprisonment,  the  pillory  and  the 
whip,  statesmen  and  ecclesiastics  were  not  ashamed  to 
keep  such  libelers  as  Mrs.  Manley  in  their  pay.  That 
the  reader  may  fully  appreciate  the  change  which  time 
has  wrought  in  the  tone  of  political  literature,  let  him 
contrast  the  virulence  and  malignity  of  this  unpleasant 
passage  from  the  New  Atalantis,  with  the  tone  which  re- 
cently characterized  the  public  discussions  of  the  case 
which  is  generally  known  by  the  name  of  "  The  Edmunds 
Scandal." 

Notwithstanding  her  notorious  disregard  of  truth,  it  is 
scarcely  credible  that  Mrs.  Manley's  scurrilous  charge  was 
in  no  way  countenanced  by  facts.  At  the  close  of  the 
seventeenth  century  to  keep  a  mistress  was  scarcely  re- 
garded as  an  offense  against  good  morals;  and  living  in 
accordance  with  the  fashion  of  the  time,  it  is  probable 
that  Somers  did  that  which  LordThurlow,  after  an  inter- 


COURTS    AND     LAWYERS.  193 

val  of  a  century,  was  able  to  do  without  rousing  public 
disapproval.  Had  his  private  life  been  spotless,  he  would 
doubtless  have  taken  legal  steps  to  silence  his  traduccr  ; 
and  unsustained  by  a  knowledge  that  he  dared  not  court 
inquiry  into  his  domestic  arrangements,  Mrs,  Manley 
would  have  used  her  pen  with  greater  caution.  But  all 
persons  competent  to  form  an  opinion  on  the  case  have 
agreed  that  the  more  revolting  charges  of  the  indictment 
were  the  baseless  fictions  of  a  malicious  and  unclean  mind. 


CHAPTER    XXVII. 

IN  the  "  Philosophical  Dictionary,"  Voltaire,  laboring 
under  misapprehension  or  carried  away  by  perverse 
humor,  made  the  following  strange  announcement : — "  II 
est  public  en  Angleterre,  et  on  voudroit  le  nier  en  vain, 
que  le  Chancelier  Cowper  6pousa  deux  femmes,  qui 
vecurent  ensemble  dans  sa  maison  avec  une  Concorde 
singuliere  qui  fit  honneur  a  tous  trois,  Plusieurs  curieux 
ont  encore  le  petit  livre  que  ce  Chancelier  composa  en 
faveur  de  la  Polygamie."  Tickled  by  the  extravagant 
credulity  or  grotesque  malice  of  this  declaration,  an  Eng- 
lish wit,  improving  upon  the  published  words,  repre- 
sented the  Frenchman  as  maintaining  that  the  custodian 
of  the  Great  Seal  of  England  was  called  the  Lord 
Keeper,  because,  by  English  law,  he  was  permitted  to 
keep  as  many  wives  as  he  pleased. 

The  reader's  amusement  will  not  be  din.'.inished  by  a 
brief  statement  of  the  facts  to  which  we  are  indebted  for 
Voltaire's  assertion. 

William  Cowper,  the  first  earl  of  his  line,  began  life 
with  a  reputation  for  dissipated  tastes  and  habiis,  and  by 
unpleasant  experience  he  learned  liow  difficult  it  is  to  get 
rid  of  a  bad  name.     The  son  of  a  Hertfordshire  baronet, 


194  PLEASANTRIES     OF     ENGLISH     « 

he  was  still  a  law  student  when  he  formed  a  reprehensible 
connection  with  an  unmarried  lady  of  that  county — Miss 
(or,  as  she  was  called  by  the  fashion  of  the  day  Mistress) 
Elizabeth  Culling,  of  Hertingfordbury  Park.  But  little 
is  known  of  this  woman.  Her  age  is  an  affair  of  uncer- 
tainty, and  all  the  minor  circum.^tances  of  her  intrigue 
with  young  Wiliiam  Cowper  are  open  to  doubt  and  con- 
jecture; but  the  few  known  facts  justify  the  inference 
that  she  neither  merited  nor  found  much  pity  in  her  dis- 
grace, and  that  William  erred  through  boyish  indiscretion 
rather  than  vicious  propensity.  She  bore  him  two  chil- 
dren, and  he  neither  married  her  nor  was  required  by 
public  opinion  to  marry  her.  The  respectability  of  their 
connection  gave  the  affair  a  peculiar  interest,  and  afforded 
countenance  to  many  groundless  reports.  By  her  friends 
it  was  intimated  that  the  boy  had  not  triumphed  over  the 
lady's  virtue  until  he  had  made  her  a  promise  of  marriage  ; 
and  some  persons  even  went  so  far  as  to  assert  that  they 
were  privately  married.  It  is  not  unlikely  that  at  one 
time  the  boy  intended  to  make  her  his  wife  as  soon  as  he 
should  be  independent  of  his  father,  and  free  to  please 
himself.  Beyond  question,  however,  is  it  that  they  were 
never  united  in  wedlock,  and  that  Will  Cowper  joined 
the  Home  Circuit  with  the  tenacious  fame  of  a  scape- 
grace and  roue. 

That  he  w'as  for  any  long  period  a  man  of  dissolute 
morals  is  improbable  :  for  he  was  only  twenty-four  years 
of  age  when  he  was  called  to  the  bar,  and  before  his  call 
he  had  married  (after  a  year's  wooing)  a  virtuous  and  ex- 
emplary young  lady,  with  whom  he  lived  happily  for 
more  than  twenty  years.  A  merchant's  child,  whose 
face  was  her  fortune — Judith,  the  daughter  of  Sir  Robert 
Booth,  is  extolled  by  biographers  for  reclaiming  her 
young  husband  from  a  life  of  levity  and  culpable  pleasure 
That  he  loved  her  sincerely  from  the  date  of  their  im- 


COURTS    AND    LAWYERS.  195 

prudent  marriage  till  the  date  of  her  death,  which 
occurred  just  about  six  months  before  his  elevation  to 
the  woolsack,  there  is  abundant  evidence. 

Judith  died  April  2,  1705,  and  in  the  September  of  the 
following  year  the  Lord  Keeper  married  Mary  Clavering 
the  beautiful  and  virtuous  lady  of  the  bed-chamber  to 
Caroline  Wilhelmina  Dorothea,  Princess  of  Wales.  This 
lady  was  the  Countess  Cowper  whose  diary  was  published 
by  Mr.  Murray  in  the  spring  of  1864;  and  in  every  re- 
lation of  life  she  was  as  good  and  noble  a  creature  as  her 
predecessor  in  William  Cowper's  affection.  Of  the  loving 
terms  on  which  she  lived  with  her  lord,  conclusive  testi- 
mony is  found  in  their  published  letters  and  her  diary. 
Frequently  separated  by  his  professional  avocations  and 
her  duties  of  attendance  upon  the  Princess  of  Wales, 
they  maintained,  during  the  periods  of  personal  sever- 
ance, a  close  and  tender  intercourse  by  written  words  : 
and  at  all  other  times,  in  sickness  not  less  than  in  health, 
they  were  a  fondly  united  couple.  One  pathetic  entry 
in  the  countess's  diary  speaks  eloquently  of  their  nup- 
tial tenderness  and  devotion  :—"  April  7th,  17  16.  After 
dinner  we  went  to  Sir  Godfrey  Kneller'sto  see  a  picture 
of  my  lord,  which  he  is  drawing,  and  is  the  best  that  was 
ever  done  for  him  ;  it  is  for  my  drawing-room,  and  in  the 
same  posture  that  he  watched  me  so  many  weeks  in  my. 
great  illness." 

Lord  Cowper's  second  marriage  was  solemnized  with  a 
secrecy  for  which  his  biographers  are  unable  to  account. 
The  event  took  place  in  September,  1706,  about  two 
months  b(  fore  his  father's  death,  but  it  was  not  announced 
till  the  end  of  February,  1707,  at  which  time  Luttrell 
entered  in  his  diary,  "The  Lord  Keeper,  who  not  long 
since  was  privately  married  to  Mrs.  Clavering,  of  the 
bishoprick  of  Durham,  brough  her  home  this  day."  Mr. 
P'css,  in  his"  Judges  of  England,"  suggests  that  the  con- 


196  PLEASANTRIES    OF    ENGLISH 

cealment  of  the  union  "  may  not  improbably  be  explained 
by  the  Lord  Keeper's  desire  not  to  disturb  the  last  days 
of  his  father,  who  might  perhaps  have  been  disappointed 
that  the  selection  had  not  fallen  on  some  other  lady  to 
whom  he  had  wished  his  son  to  be  united."  But  this 
conjecture,  notwithstanding  its  probability,  is  only  a  con- 
jecture. Unless  they  had  grave  reasons  for  their  conduct, 
the  Lord  Keeper  and  his  lady  had  better  have  joined 
hands  in  the  presence  of  the  world,  for  the  mystery  of 
their  private  wedding  nettled  public  curiosity,  and  gave 
new  life  to  an  old  slander. 

Cowper's  boyish  escapade  was  not  forgotten  by  the 
malicious.  No  sooner  had  he  become  conspicious  in 
his  profession  and  in  politics,  than  the  story  of  his  inter- 
course with  Miss  Culling  was  told  in  coffee-rooms  with 
all  the  exaggerations  that  prurient  fancy  could  devise,  or 
enmity  dictate.  The  old  tale  of  a  secret  marriage — or, 
still  worse,  of  a  mock  marriage — was  caught  from  the 
lips  of  some  Hertford  scandal-monger,  and  conveyed  to 
the  taverns  and  drawing-rooms  of  London.  In  taking 
Sir  Robert  Booth's  daughter  to  church,  he  was  said  to 
have  committed  bigamy.  Even  while  he  was  in  the 
House  of  Commons  he  was  known  by  the  name  of  "  Will 
Bigemy  ;  "  and  that  sobriquet  clung  to  him  ever  after- 
wards. Twenty  years  of  wholesome  domestic  intercourse 
with  his  first  wife  did  not  free  him  from  the  abominable 
imputation,  and  his  marriage  with  Miss  Clavering  revived 
the  calumny  in  a  new  form.  Fools  were  found  to  believe 
that  he  had  married  her  during  Judith  Booth's  life,  and 
that  their  union  had  been  concealed  for  several  years  in- 
stead of  a  few  months.  The  affair  with  Miss  Culling  w^s 
for  a  time  forgotten,  and  the  charge  preferred  against  the 
keeper  of  the  queen's  conscience  was  bigamy  of  a  much 
more  recent  date. 

In   various  forms  this   ridiculous   accusation    enlivens 


I 


COURTS    AND     LAWYERS.  197 

the  squibs  of  the  pamphleteers  of  Queen  Anne's  reign. 
In  the  "New  Atalantis"  Mrs.  Manley  certified  that  the 
fair  victim  was  first  persuaded  by  his  lordship's  sophistries 
to  regard  polygamy  as  accordant  with  moral  law.  Having 
thus  poisoned  her  understanding,  he  gratified  her  with  a 
form  of  marriage,  in  which  his  brother  Spencer,  in  cleri- 
cal disguise,  acted  the  part  of  priest.  It  was  even  sug- 
gested that  the  bride  in  this  mock  marriage  was  the  law- 
yer's ward.  Never  squeamish  about  the  truth,  when 
he  could  gain  a  point  by  falsehood.  Swift  indorsed  the 
spiteful  fabrication,  and  in  the  Examiner,  pointing  at 
Lord  Cowper,  wrote — "  This  gentleman,  knowing  that 
marriage  fees  were  a  considerable  perquisite  to  the 
clergy,  found  out  a  way  of  improving  them  cent,  per 
cent,  for  the  benefit  of  the  Church.  His  invention  was 
to  marry  a  second  wife  while  the  first  was  alive  ;  con- 
vincing her  of  the  lawfulness  by  such  arguments  as  he 
did  not  doubt  would  make  others  follow  the  same 
example.  These  he  had  draxvn  71  p  in  zvriting  ivitJi  inten- 
tion to  publish  for  the  general  good,  and  it  is  hoped  he  may 
nozv  have  leisure  to  finisJi  them!'  It  is  possible  that  the 
words  in  italics  were  the  cause  of  Voltaire's  astounding 
statement :  "  Plusieurs  curieux  ont  encore  le  petit  livre 
que  ce  Chancelier  composa  en  faveur  de  la  Polygamic." 
On  this  point  Lord  Campbell,  confidently  advancing  an 
opinion  which  can  scarcely  command  unanimous  assent, 
says,  "  The  fable  of  the  '  Treatise  '  is  evidently  taken 
from  the  panegyric  on  'a  pluralty  of  wives,'  which  Mrs. 
Manley  puts  into  the  mouth  of  Lord  Cowper,  in  a  speech 
supposed  to  be  addressed  by  Hernando  to  Louisa."  But 
whether  Voltaire  accepted  the  "  New  Atalantis,"  or  the 
£A'^w/;/ifr,  as  an  authority  for  the  statements  of  his  very 
laughable  passage,  it  is  scarcely  credible  that  he  believed 
himself  to  be  penning  the  truth.  The  most  reasonable 
explanation  of  the  matter  appears  to  be,  that  tickled  by 


r^S  PLEASANTRIES    OF     ENGLISH 

Swift's  venomous  lines,  tlie  sarcastic  Frenchman  in  malice 
and  gayety  adopted  them,  and  added  to  their  piquancy 
by  the  assurance  that  the  Chancellor's  book  was  not  only 
published,  but  was  preserved  by  connoisseurs  as  a  literary 
curiosity. 

Like  his  elder  brother,  the  Chancellor,  Spencer  Cow- 
pcr  married  at  an  early  age,  lived  to  wed  a  second  wife, 
and  was  accused  of  immorality  that  was  foreign  to  his 
nature.  The  offense  with  which  the  younger  Cowper 
was  charged,  created  so  wide  and  profound  a  sensation, 
and  gave  rise  to  such  a  memorable  trial,  that  the  reader 
\Till  like  to  glance  at  the  facts  of  the  case. 

Born  in  1669,  Spencer  Cowper  was  scarcely  of  age 
\Then  he  was  called  to  the  bar,  and  made  Comptroller  of 
the  Bridge  House  Estate.  The  office,  which  was  in  the 
gift  of  the  corporation  of  London,  provided  him  with  a 
good  income,  together  with  a  residence  in  the  Bridge 
House,  St.  Olave's,  Southwark,  and  brought  him  in  con- 
tact with  men  who  were  able  to  bring  him  briefs  or 
recommend  him  to  attorneys.  For  several  years  the 
boy-barrister  was  thought  a  singularly  lucky  fellow.  His 
hospitable  house  was  brightened  by  a  young  and  lovely 
wife  (Pennington,  the  daughter  of  John  Goodeve),  and 
he  was  so  much  respected  in  his  locality  that  he  was 
made  a  justice  of  the  peace.  \\\  his  profession  he  was 
equally  fortunate:  his  voice  was  often  heard  at  West- 
minster and  on  the  Home  Circuit,  the  same  circuit  where 
his  brother  William  practiced  and  his  family  interest  lay. 
He  found  many  clients. 

Envy  is  the  shadow  of  success;  and  the  two  Cowpers 
were  watched  by  men  who  longed  to  ruin  them.  From 
the  day  when  they  armed  and  rode  forth  to  welcome  the 
Prince  of  Orange,  the  lads  had  been  notably  fortunate. 
Notwithstanding  his  reputation  for  immorality  William 
Cowper  had  sprung  into   lucrative  practice,  and  in    1695 


COURTS    AND     LAWYERS.  199 

was  returned  to  Parliament  as  representative  for  Hert- 
ford, the  other  seat  for  the  borough  being  filled  by  his 
father,  Sir  William  Cowper. 

In  spite  of  their  comeliness  and  complaisant  manners, 
the  lightness  of  their  wit  and  the  ^rri'/i'^t' of  their  success, 
Hertford  heard  murmurs  that  the  young  Covvpers  were 
too  lucky  by  half,  and  that  the  Cowper  interest  was 
dangerously  powerful  in  the  borough.  It  was  averred 
that  the  Cowpers  were  making  unfair  capital  out  of 
liberal  professions:  and  when  the  Hertford  Whigs  sent 
the  father  and  son  to  the  House  of  Commons,  the  van- 
quished party  cursed  in  a  breath  the  Dutch  usurper  and 
his  obsequious  followers. 

It  was  resolved  to  damage  the  Cowpers  : — by  fair  means 
or  foul,  to  render  them  odious  in  their  native  town. 

Ere  long  the  malcontents  found  a  good  cry. 

Scarcely  less  odious  to  the  Hertford  Tories  than  the 
Cowpers  themselves  was  an  influential  Quaker  of  the 
town,  named  Stout,  who  actively  supported  the  Cowper 
interest.  A  man  of  wealth  and  good  repute,  this  follower 
of  George  Fox  exerted  himself  enthusiastically  in  the 
election  contest  of  1695  :  and  in  acknowledgment  of  his 
services  the  Covvpers  honored  him  with  their  personal 
friendship.  Sir  William  Cowper  asked  him  to  dine  at 
Hertford  Castle — the  baronet's  country  residence;  Sir 
William's  son  made  calls  on  his  wife  and  daughter.  Of 
course  these  attentions  from  Cowper  to  "the  Shaker" 
were  offensive  to  the  Tory  magnates  of  the  place  :  and 
they  vented  their  indignation  in  whispers,  that  the  young 
men  never  entered  Stout's  house  without  kissing  his 
pretty  daughter. 

While  these  rumors  were  still  young,  Mr.  Stout  died, 
leaving  considerable  property  to  his  widow,  and  to  hi.s 
only  child — the  beauteous  Sarah  ;  and  after  his  death  the 
intercourse  between   the  two  families  became  yet  more 


200  PLEASANTRIES    OF    ENGLISH 

close  and  cordial.  The  lawyers  advised  the  two  ladies 
about  the  management  of  their  property  :  and  the  baronet 
gave  them  invitations  to  his  London  house  in  Hatton 
Garden,  as  well  as  to  Hertford  Castle.  The  friendship 
had  disastrous  consequences.  Both  the  brothers  were 
very  fascinating  men  —  men,  moreover,  who  not  only 
excelled  in  the  art  of  pleasing,  but,  who  also  habitually 
exercised  it.  From  custom,  inclination,  policy,  they  were 
very  kind  to  the  mother  and  daughter;  probably  paying 
the  latter  many  compliments  which  they  would  never  have 
uttered  had  they  been  single  men.  Coming  from  an  un- 
married man  the  speech  is  often  significant  of  love,  which 
on  the  lips  of  a  husband  is  but  the  language  cf  courtes}\ 
But,  unfortunately,  Miss  ("  Mistress  "  is  her  style  in  the 
report  of  a  famous  trial)  Sarah  Stout  fell  madly  in  love 
with  Spencer  Cowper,  notwithstanding  the  impossibility 
of  marriage. 

Not  only  did  she  conceive  a  dangerous  fondness  for 
him,  but  she  openly  expressed  it — by  speech  and  letters. 
She  visited  him  in  the  Temple,  and  persecuted  him  with 
her  embarrassing  devotion  whenever  he  came  to  Hertford. 
It  was  a  trying  position  for  a  young  man  not  thirty 
years  of  age,  with  a  wife  to  whom  he  was  devotedly 
attached,  and  a  family  whose  political  influence  in  his 
native  town  might  be  hurt  by  publication  of  the  girl's 
folly.  Taking  his  elder  brother  into  his  confidence,  he 
asked  what  course  he  ought  to  pursue.  To  withdraw 
totally  and  abruptly  from  the  two  ladies,  would  be  cruel 
to  the  daughter,  insulting  to  the  mother;  moreover,  it 
would  give  rise  to  unpleasant  suspicions  and  prejudicial 
gossip  in  the  borough.  It  was  decided  that  Spencer 
must  repress  the  girl's  advances — must  see  her  less 
frequently — and,  by  a  reserved  and  frigid  manner,  must 
compel  her  to  assume  an  appearance  of  womanly  dis- 
cretion.    But  the  plan  failed. 


COURTS    AND     LAWYERS.  201 

At  the  opening  of  the  year  1699,  she  invited  him  to 
take  up  his  quarters  in  her  mother's  house,  when  he 
came  to  Hertford  at  the  next  Spring  Assizes.  This  in- 
vitation he  declined,  saying  that  he  had  arranged  to  take 
his  brother's  customary  lodgings  in  the  house  of  Mr. 
Barefoot,  in  the  Market-place,  but  with  manly  consider- 
ation he  promised  to  call  upon  her.  "  I  am  glad,"  Sarah 
wrote  to  him  on  March  5,  1699,  "you  have  not  quite 
forgot  there  is  such  a  person  as  I  in  being:  but  1  am 
7/illing  to  shut  my  ej-es  and  not  see  anything  that  looks 
like  unkindness  in  you,  and  rather  content  myself  with 
what  excuses  you  are  pleased  to  make,  than  be  inquisi- 
tive into  what  I  must  not  know:  I  am  sure  the  winter 
has  been  too  unpleasant  for  me  to  desire  the  continu- 
ance of  it:  and  I  wish  you  were  to  endure  the  sharpness 
of  it  but  for  one  short  hour,  as  I  have  done  for  many 
long  nights  and  days,  and  then  I  believe  it  would  move 
that  rocky  heart  of  yours  that  can  be  so  thoughtless  of 
me  as  you  are." 

On  Monday,  March  13,  following  the  date  of  the  words 
just  quoted,  Spencer  Cowper  rode  into  Hertford,  alighted 
at  Mrs.  Stout's  house,  and  dined  with  the  ladies.  Having 
left  the  house  after  dinner,  in  order  that  he  might  attend 
to  some  business,  he  returned  in  the  evening  and  supped 
with  the  two  women.  Supper  over,  Mrs.  Stout  retired 
for  the  night,  leaving  her  daughter  and  the  young  bar- 
rister together.  No  sooner  had  the  mother  left  the  room, 
than  a  distressing  scene  ensued. 

Unable  to  control  or  soothe  her,  Spencer  gently  divided 
the  clasp  of  her  hands,  and  having  freed  himself  from  her 
embrace,  hastened  from  the  room  and  abruptly  left  the 
house.  He  slept  at  his  lodgings  ;  and  the  next  morning 
he  was  horror-struck  on  hearing  that  Sarah  Stout's  body 
had  been  found  drowned  in  the  mill-stream  behind  her 
old    home.     That    catastrophe    had    actually    occurred 


20  2  PLEASANTRIES     OF    ENGLISH 

Scarcely  had  the  young  barrister  reached  the  Market- 
place, when  the  miserable  girl  threw  herself  into  the 
stream  from  which  her  lifeless  body  was  picked  on  the 
following  moining.  At  the  coroner's  inquest  which 
ensued,  Spencer  Cowper  gave  his  evidence  with  extreme 
caution  withholding  every  fact  that  could  be  injurious  to 
Sarah's  reputation  ;  and  the  jury  returned  a  verdict  that 
the  deceased  gentlewoman  had  killed  herself  Vvhile  in  a 
state  of  insanity. 

In  deep  dejection,  Spencer  Cowper  continued  the 
journey  of  the  circuit. 

But  the  excitement  of  the  public  was  not  allayed  by 
the  inquest  and  subsequent  funeral.  It  was  rumored 
that  it  was  no  case  of  self-murder,  but  a  case  of  murder 
by  the  barrister,  who  had  strangled  his  dishonored  victim, 
and  had  then  thrown  her  into  the  river.  Anxious  to 
save  their  sect  from  the  stigma  of  suicide  the  Quakers 
concurred  with'  the  Tories  in  charging  the  young  man 
with  a  henious  complication  of  crimes.  The  case  against 
Spencer  was  laid  before  Chief  Justice  Holt,  who  at  first 
dismissed  the  accusation  as  absurd,  but  was  afterwards 
induced  to  commit  the  suspected  man  for  trial ;  and  in 
the  July  of  1699  the  charge  actually  came  before  a  jury 
at  the  Hertford  Assizes.  Four  prisoners — Spencer  Cow- 
per, two  attorneys,  and  a  law-writer — were  placed  in  the 
dock  on  the  charge  of  murdering  Sarah   Stout. 

On  the  present  occasion  there  is  no  need  to  recapitu- 
late the  ridiculous  evidence  and  absurd  misconduct  of 
the  prosecution  in  this  trial  :  though  crim.inal  lawyers 
who  wish  to  know  what  unfairness  and  irregularities  were 
permitted  in  such  inquiries  in  the  seventeenth  century 
can  not  do  better  than  peruse  the  full  report  of  the  pro- 
ceedings, which  may  be  found  in  every  comprehensive 
legal  library.  In  this  place  it  is  enough  to  say  that 
though  the  accusation  was  not  sustained  by  a  shadow  oi 


COURTS    AND     LAWYERS.  203 

lei^al  testimony,  the  prejudice  against  the  prisoners,  both 
on  the  part  of  a  certain  section  of  the  Hertford  residents 
and  the  presiding  judge,  Mr.  Baron  Katsel,  was  such 
that  the  verdict  for  acquittal  was  a  disappointment  to 
many  who  heard  it  proclaimed  by  the  foreman  of  the 
jury.  Narcissus  Luttrell,  indeed,  says  that  the  verdict 
was  "to  the  satisfaction  of  the  auditors;"  but  in  this 
statement  the  diarist  wac  unquestionably  wrong,  so  far 
as  the  promoters  of  the  prosecution  were  concerned. 
Instead  of  accepting  the  decision  without  demur,  they 
attempted  to  put  the  prisoners  again  on  their  trial  by  the 
obsolete  process  of  "  appeal  of  murder;"  but  this  en- 
deavor proving  abortive,  the  case  was  disposed  of,  and 
the  prisoners'  minds  set  at  rest. 

The  barrister  who  was  thus  tried  on  a  capital  charge, 
and  narrowly  escaped  a  sentence  that  would  have  con- 
signed him  to  an  ignominious  death,  resumed  his  practice 
in  the  law  courts,  sat  in  the  House  of  Commons,  and  rose 
to  be  a  judge  in  the  Court  of  Common  Pleas.  It  is  said 
that  he  "  presided  on  many  trials  for  murder;  ever  cau- 
tious and  mercifully  inclined — remembering  the  great 
peril  which  he  himself  had  undergone." 

The  same  writer  who  aspersed  Somcrs  with  her  un- 
chaste thoughts,  and  reiterated  the  charge  of  bigamy 
against  Lord  Chancellor  Cowper,  did  not  omit  to  give  a 
false  and  malicious  version  to  the  incidents  which  had 
acutely  wounded  the  fine  sensibilities  of  the  younger 
Cowper.  But  enough  notice  has  been  taken  of  the 
"New  Atalantis "  in  this  chapter.  To  that  repulsive 
book  we  refer  those  readers  who  may  wish  to  peruse 
Mrs.  Manley's  account  of  Sarah  Stout's  death. 

A  distorted  tradition  of  Sarah  Stout's  tragic  end,  and 
T^f  Lord  Cowper's  imputed  bigamy,  was  contributed  to 
an  early  number  of  the  "  European  "  by  a  clerical  author- 
it;, —  the  Rev.  J.  Hinton,  Rector  of  Alderton,  in  North 


204  PLEASANTRIES    OF     ENGLISH 

amptonshire.  "  Mrs.  Sarah  Stout,"  says  the  writer, 
'*  whose  death  was  charged  upon  Spencer  Cowper,  was 
strangled  accidentally  by  drawing  the  steenkirk  too 
tight  upon  her  neck,  as  she,  with  four  or  five  young 
persons,  were  at  a  game  of  romp  upon  the  staircase  ; 
but  it  was  not  done  by  Mr.  Cowper,  though  one  of  the 
company.  Mrs.  Clavering,  Lord  Chancellor  Cowper's 
second  wife,  whom  he  married  during  the  life  of  his 
first,  was  there  too  ;  they  were  so  confounded  with  the 
accident,  that  they  foolishly  resolved  to  throw  her  into 
the  water,  thinking  it  would  pass  that  she  had  drowned 
herself."  This  charming  paragraph  illustrates  the  vital- 
ity of  scandal,  and  at  the  same  time  shows  how  ludic- 
rously rumor  and  tradition  mistell  stories  in  the  face  of 
evidence. 

Spencer  Cowper's  second  son,  the  Rev.  John  Cowper, 
D.D.,  was  the  father  of  William  Cowper,  the  poet. 


CHAPTER    XXVIII. 


NOTWITHSTANDING  his  illustrious  descent, 
Simon  Harcourt  raised  himself  to  the  woolsack  by 
his  own  exertions,  and  was  in  no  degree  indebted  to  pow- 
erful relatives  for  his  elevation.  The  son  of  a  knight, 
whose  loyalty  to  the  House  of  Stuart  had  impoverished 
his  estate,  he  spent  his  student-days  at  Pembroke,  Oxford, 
and  the  Inner  Temple,  in  resolute  labor,  and  with  few 
indulgences.  His  father  could  make  him  but  a  slende; 
allowance  ;  and  when  he  assumed  the  gown  of  a  barrister, 
the  future  Chancellor,  like  Erskine  in  after  years,  was 
spurred  to  industry  by  the  voices  of  his  wife  and  children. 
While  he  was  still  an  undergraduate  of  the  university,  he 
fell  in  love  with  Rebecca  Clark,  daughter  of  a  pious  man, 
of  whose  vocation  the  modern  peer;io;es  are  ashamed.  Sir 


COURTS    AND    LAWYERS.  205 

Pliilip  Harcourt  (the  Chancellor's  father)  in  spite  of  his 
loyalty  quarreled  with  the  Established  Church,  and  joined 
the  Presbyterians  :  and  Thomas  Clark  was  his  Presby- 
terian chaplain,  secretary,  and  confidential  servant.  Great 
was  Sir  Philip's  wrath  on  learning  that  his  boy  had  not 
only  fallen  in  love  with  Rebecca  Clark,  but  had  married 
her  privately.  It  is  probable  that  the  event  lowered  the 
worthy  knight's  esteem  for  the  Presbyterian  system  ;  but 
as  anger  could  not  cut  the  nuptial  bond  the  father  re- 
lented— gave  the  young  people  all  the  assistance  he  could, 
and  hoped  that  they  vvould  live  long  without  repenting 
their  folly.  The  match  turned  out  far  better  than  the 
old  knig-ht  feared.  Taking  his  humble  bride  to  modest 
chambers,  young  Harcourt  applied  sedulously  to  the 
study  of  the  law  ;  and  his  industry  was  rewarded  by  suc- 
cess, and  by  the  gratitude  of  a  dutiful  wife.  In  unbroken 
happiness  they  lived  together  for  a  succession  of  years, 
and  their  union  was  fruitful  of  children, 

Harcourt  fared  better  with  his  love  match  than  Ser- 
geant Hill  with  his  heiress.  Miss  Medleycott  of  Cotting- 
ham,  Northamptonshire.  On  the  morning  of  his  wed- 
ding, the  eccentric  sergeant,  having  altogether  forgotten 
his  most  important  engagement  for  the  day,  received  his 
clients  in  chambers  after  his  usual  practice,  and  remained 
busy  with  professional  cares  until  a  band  of  devoted 
friends  forcibly  carried  him  to  the  church,  where  his 
bride  had  been  waiting  for  him  more  than  an  hour.  The 
ceremony  having  been  duly  performed,  he  hastened  back 
to  his  chambers,  to  be  present  at  a  consultation.  Not- 
withstanding her  sincere  affection  for  him,  the  lady 
proved  but  an  indifferent  wife  to  the  black-letter  lawyer. 
Empowered  by  Act  of  Parliament  to  retain  her  maiden 
name  after  marriage,  she  showed  her  disesteem  for  her 
husband's  patronymic  by  her  mode  of  exercising  the 
privilege  secured  to  her  by  special  law;  and  many  a  time 


20-6  PLEASANTRIES     OE     ENGLISH 

the  sci\^"eant  indignantly  insisted  that  she  should  use  his 
nr..me  in  her  signatures.  "  My  name  is  Hill,  madam  ;  my 
i';i:her's  name  was  Hill,  madam;  all  the   Hills  have  been 

i;amcd  Hill,  madam  ;  Hill  is  a  good  name — and  by , 

madam,  \'OU  sJiall  use  it."  On  other  matters  he  was 
more  compliant — huirioring  her  old-m  lidish  fancies  in  a 
most  docile  and  conciliating  manner.  Curiously  neat 
and  orderly,  Mrs.  Medleycott  took  great  pride  in  the  fault- 
lessness  of  her  domestic  arrangements,  so  far  as  cleanli- 
ness and  precise  order  were  concerned.  To  maintain  the 
whiteness  of  the  pipe-clayed  steps  before  the  front  door 
of  her  Bedford-square  mansion  was  a  chief  object  of  her 
existence  ;  and  to  gratify  her  in  this  particular.  Sergeant 
Hill  used  daily  to  leave  his  premises  by  the  kitchen  steps. 
Having  outlived  the  lad}-,  Hill  observed  to  a  friend  who 
was  condoling  with  him  on  his  recent  bereavement,  "Ay, 
my  poor  wife  is  gone  I  She  was  a  good  sort  of  woman 
— in  Jier  way  a  very  good  sort  of  woman.  I  do  honestly 
declare  my  belief  that  in  her  way  she  had  no  equal.  But 
— but— I'll  tell  you  something  in  confidence.  If  ever  I 
marry  again,  /  ivoii  t  marry  merely  for  moneys  The 
learned  Sergeant  died  in  his  ninct}'-third  year  without 
having  made  a  second  marriage. 

Like  Harcourt,  John  Scott  married  under  circum- 
stances that  called  forth  many  warm  expressions  of  cen- 
sure ;  and,  like  Harcoart,  he,  in  after  life,  reflected  on  his 
imprudent  marriage  as  one  of  the  most  fortunate  steps 
of  his  earlier  career.  The  romance  of  the  law  contains  few 
more  pleasant  episodes  than  the  story  of  handsome  Jack 
Scott's  elopement  with  Bessie  Surtees.  There  is  no  need 
to  tell  in  detail  how  \.\\t  comely  Oxford  scholar  danced 
with  the  banker's  daughter  at  the  Newcastle  assemblies; 
how  his  suit  was  at  first  recognized  by  the  girl's  parent's, 
although  the  Scotts  were  bat  rich  "  fitters,''  whereas 
Aubone  Surtees,  Esquire,  was  a  banker  and  gentleman  oi 


COURTS    AND     LAWYERS.  207 

honorable  descent;  how,  on  the  appearance  of  an  aged 
and  patrician  suitor  for  Bessie's  hand,  papa  and  mamma 
told  Jack  Scott  not  to  presume  on  their  condescension, 
and  counseled  Bessie  to  throw  her  lover  over  and  become 
the  lady  of  Sir  William  Blackett ;  how  Bessie  was  faithful, 
and  Jack  was  urgent ;  how  they  had  secret  interviews  on 
Tyne-side  and  in  London,  meeting  clandestinely  on  horse- 
back and  on  foot,  corresponding  privately  by  letters  and 
confidential  messengers;  how,  eventually,  the  lovers,  to 
the  consternation  of  "  good  society  "  in  Newcastle,  were 
made  husband  and  wife  at  Blackshields,  North  Britain. 
Who  is  ignorant  of  the  story  ?  Does  not  every  visitor 
to  Newcastle  pause  before  an  old  house  in  Sandhill,  and 
look  up  at  the  blue  pane  which  marks  the  window  from 
which  Bessie  descended  into  her  lover's  arms? 

Jack  and  Bessie  were  not  punished  with  even  that  brief 
period  of  suffering  and  uncertainty  which  conscientious 
novelists  are  accustomed,  for  the  sake  of  social  morals,  to 
ass!f?;n  to  runaway  lovers  before  the  merciful  guardian  or 
tender  parent  promises  forgiveness  and  a  liberal  allowance, 
paid  in  quarterly  installments.  In  his  old  age  Eldon  used 
to  maintain  that  their  plight  was  very  pitiable  on  the 
third  morning  after  their  rash  union.  "  Our  funds  were 
exhausted  :  we  had  not  a  home  to  go  to,  and  we  knew 
not  whether  our  friends  would  ever  speak  to  us  again." 
In  this  strain  ran  the  veteran's  story,  which,  like  all 
other  aiiecdotes  from  the  same  source,  must  be  received 
with  caution.  But  even  the  old  peer,  eyer  ready  to 
exaggerate  his  early  difficulties,  had  not  enough  effrontery 
to  represent  that  their  dejection  lasted  more  than  three 
days.  The  fathers  of  the  bride  and  bridegroom  soon  met 
and  came  to  terms,  and  with  the  beginning  of  the  new 
year  Bessie  Scott  was  living  in  New  Inn  Hall,  Oxford, 
whil^  her  husband  read  Vinerian  Lectures,  and  presided 
over  that  scholastic  house.    The  position  of  Scott  at  this 


2o8  PLEASANTRIES    Ot     ENGLISH 

time  was  very  singular.  He  was  acting  as  substitute 
for  Sir  Robert  Chambers,  the  Principal  of  New  Inn  Hall 
and  Vinerian  Professor  of  Law,  who  contrived  to  hold  his 
university  preferments,  whilst  he  discharged  the  duties  of 
a  judge  in  India.  To  give  an  honest  color  to  this  inde- 
fensible arrangement,  it  was  provided  that  the  lectures 
read  from  the  Vinerian  Chair  should  be  actually  written  by 
the  Professor,  although  they  were  delivered  by  deputy. 
Scott,  therefore,  as  the  Professor's  mouth-piece,  on  a 
salary  of  i^6o  a  year,  with  free  quarters  in  the  Princi- 
pal's house,  was  merely  required  to  read  a  series  of 
treatises  sent  to  him  by  the  absent  teacher.  "  The  law- 
professor,"  the  ex-Chancellor  used  to  relate  with  true 
Eldonian  humor  and/rtz/r;/ — "sent  me  the  first  lecture 
which  I  had  to  read  immediately  to  the  students,  and 
which  1  began  without  knowing  a  single  word  that  was 
in  it.  It  was  upon  the  statute  (4  and  5  P.  and  M.  c.  S), 
*'  of  young  men  running  away  with  maidens."  Fancy  me 
reading,  with  about  140  boys  and  young  men  all  giggling 
at  the  Professor!  Such  a  tittering  audience  no  one  ever 
had."  If  this  incident  really  occurred  on  the  occasion  of 
his  "  first  reading,"  the  laughter  must  have  been  inex- 
tinguishable ;  for,  of  course,  J;.ick  Scott's  run-away  mar- 
riage had  made  much  gossip  in  Oxford  Common  Rooms, 
and  the  singular  loveliness  of  his  girlish  wife  (described 
by  an  eye-witness  as  being  "  so  very  young  as  to  give 
the  impression  of  childhood,")  stirred  the  heart  of  every 
undergraduate  who  met  her  in  High-street. 

There  is  no  harm  done  by  laughter  at  the  old  Chan- 
cellor's romantic  fiction's  about  the  poverty  which  he  and 
his  Bessie  encountered,  hand  in  hand,  at  the  outset  of 
life;  for  the  laughter  blinds  no  one  to  the  genuine  affec- 
tion and  wholesome  honesty  of  the  young  husband  and 
wife.  One  has  reason  to  wish  that  marriages  such  as 
theirs     were     more    frequent    among    lawyers    in    these 


COURTS    AND     LAWYERS.  209 

ostentatious  days.  At  present  the  young  barrister,  who 
marries  before  he  has  a  clear  fifteen  hundred  a  year,  is 
charged  with  reckless  imprudence:  and  unless  his  wife  is 
a  woman  of  fortune,  or  he  is  able  to  settle  a  heavy  sum  of 
money  upon  her,  his  anxious  friends  terrify  him  with  pic- 
tures of  want  and  sorrow  stored  up  for  him  in  the  future. 
Society  will  not  let  him  live  after  the  fashion  of  "juniors" 
eighty  or  a  hundred  years  since.  He  must  maintain  two 
establishments — his  chambers  for  business,  his  house  in 
the  west-end  of  town  for  his  wife.  Moreover,  the  lady 
must  have  a  brougham  and  liberal  pin  money,  or  four  or 
five  domestic  servants  and  a  drawing-room  well  furnished 
with  works  of  art  and  costly  decorations.  They  must  give 
state-dinners  and  three  or  four  routs  every  season  :  and  in 
all  other  matters  their  mode  of  life  must  be,  or  seeni  to  be, 
that  of  the  upper  ten  thousand.  Either  they  must  live  in 
this  style,  or  be  pushed  aside  and  forgotten.  The  choice 
for  them  lies  between  very  expensive  society  or  none  at 
all — that  is  to  say,  none  at  all  among  the  rising  mem- 
bers of  the  legal  professions,  and  the  sort  of  people  with 
whom  young  barristers,  from  prudential  motives,  wish  to 
form  acquaintances.  Doubtless  many  a  fair  reader  of  this 
page  is  already  smiling  at  the  writer's  simplicity,  and  is 
saying  to  herself,  "  Here  is  one  of  the  advocates  of  mar- 
riage on  three  hundred  a  year." 

But  this  writer  is  not  going  to  advocate  marriage  on 
that  or  any  other  particular  sum.  From  personal  experi- 
ence he  knows  what  coiiifort  a  married  man  may  have  for 
an  outlay  of  three  or  four  hundred  per  annum;  and  from 
personal  observation  he  knows  what  privations  and  igno- 
minious poverty  are  endured  by  unmarried  men  who  spend 
twice  the  larger  of  those  sums  on  chamber-and-club  life. 
He  knows  that  there  are  men  who  shiver  at  the  bare 
thought  of  losing  caste   by  marriage  with  a  portionless 

girl,  while  they  are  complacently  leading  the  life   which, 
I.— 14 


2IO  PLEASANTRIES     OF     ENGLISH 

in  nine  cases  out  of  ten,  terminates  in  the  worst  form  of 
social  degradation — matrimony  where  the  husband 
blushes  for  his  wife's  early  history,  and  dares  not  tell  his 
(nvn  children  the  date  of  his  marriage  certificate.  If  it 
were  his  pleasure  he  could  speak  sad  trutlis  about  the 
bachelor  of  modest  income,  who  is  rich  enough  to  kecj) 
his  name  on  the  books  of  two  fashionable  clubs,  to  live  in 
a  good  quarter  of  London,  and  to  visit  annually  conti- 
nental capitals,  but  far  too  poor  to  think  of  incurring  the 
responsibilities  of  marriage.  It  could  be  demonstrated 
that  in  a  great  majorit}'  of  instances  this  wary,  prudent, 
selfish  gentlemen,  instead  of  being  the  social  success 
\yhich  many  simple  people  believe  him,  is  a  signal  and 
most  miserable  failure;  that  instead  of  pursuing  a  career 
of  various  enjoyments  and  keen  excitements,  he  is  a 
martyr  to  ennui,  bored  by  the  monotony  of  an  object- 
less existence,  utterly  weary  of  the  splendid  clubs, 
in  which  he  is  presumed  by  unsophisticated  admirers 
to  find  an  ample  compensation  for  want  of  house- 
hold comfort  arid  domestic  affection  ;  that  as  soon 
as  he  has  numbered  forty  years,  he  finds  the  roll  of 
Ids  friends  and  cordial  acquaintances  diminish,  and 
is  compelled  to  retire  before  younger  men,  who  snatch 
from  his  grasp  the  prizes  of  social  rivalry  ;  and  that,  as 
each  succeeding  luster  passes,  hi  finds  the  chain  of  his 
sc'cret  disappointments  and  embarrassments  more  galling 
and  heavy. 

It  is  not  a  question  of  marriage  on  three  hundred  a 
year  without  prospects,  but  of  marriage  on  five  or  si.K 
liundred  a  year  with  good  expectations.  In  the  Inns  of 
Court  there  are,  at  the  present  time,  scores  of  clever,  in- 
dustrious, fine-hearted  gentlemen,  who  have  sure  incomes 
of  three  or  four  hundred  pounds  per  annum.  In  Tybur- 
nia  and  Kensington  there  is  an  equal  number  of  young 
gentlewomen  with   incomes   varying  between  ;^I50  and 


COURTS    AND     LAWYERS.  7.1 

^300  a  year.  These  men  and  women  see  each  other  at 
balls  and  dinners,  in  the  parks  and  at  theaters  ;  the  ladies 
would  not  dislike  to  be  wives,  the  men  are  longing  to  be 
husbands.  But  that  hideous  tyrant,  social  opinion,  bids 
them  avoid  marriage. 

In  Lord  Eldon's  time  the  case  was  otherwise.  Society 
saw  nothing  singular  or  reprehensible  in  his  conduct  when 
he  brought  Bessie  to  live  in  the  little  house  in  Cursitor- 
street.  No  one  sneered  at  the  young  law-student,  whose 
home  was  a  little  den  in  a  dingy  thoroughfare.  At  a 
later  date,  the  rising  junior,  whose  wife  lived  over  his 
business  chambers  in  Carey-street,  was  the  object  of  no 
unkind  criticism  because  his  domestic  arrangements  were 
inexpensive,  and  almost  frugal.  Had  his  success  been 
tardy  instead  of  quick  and  decisive,  and  had  circumstances 
compelled  him  to  live  under  the  shadow  of  Lincoln's  Lin 
wall  for  thirty  years  on  a  narrow  income,  he  would  not 
on  that  account  have  suffered  from  a  single  disparaging 
criticism.  Among  his  neighbors  in  adjacent  streets,  and 
within  the  boundaries  of  his  Lin,  he  would  have  found 
society  for  himself  and  wife,  and  playmates  for  his  chil- 
dren. Good  fortune  coming  in  full,  strong  flood,  he  was 
not  compelled  to  greatly  change  his  plan  of  existence. 
Even  in  those  days  when  costly  ostentation  characterized 
aristocratic  society — he  was  permitted  to  live  modestly 
— and  lay  tlie  foundation  of  that  great  property  which 
he  tranvnritl'ed  to  his  ennobled  descendants. 

When  satire  has  done  its  worst  v.ith  the  miserly  pro- 
cep.'^:tie.>  of  tiie  great  lawyer  and  his  wife,  their  long 
/amili^r  int-ircourse  exhibits  a  wealth  of  tine  human  affcc- 
tior-  and  genuine  poetry  which  sarcasm  can  not  touch. 
Often  nas  lie  had  occasion  to  regret  Lady  Eldon's  peculi- 
arities— tnt  siinginess  whic'a  made  her  grudge  the  money 
paid  for  a  fish  cr  a  basket  of  fruit;  the  nervous  repug- 
nance to  society,  which  greatly  diminished  his  popularity; 


212  PLEASANTRIES    OF    ENGLISH 

r:.nd  the  taste  for  solitude  and  silence  which  marked  her 
J  ainfully  towards  the  close  of  her  life — the  Chancellor 
never  even  hinted  to  her  his  dissatisfaction.  When  their 
eldest  daughter,  following  her  mother's  example,  married 
without  the  permission  of  her  parents,  it  was  sug^^ested 
to  Lord  Eldon  that  her  ladyship  ought  to  take  better  care 
of  her  younger  daughter,  Lady  Frances,  and  entering 
society  should  play  the  part  of  a  vigilant  cJiapcron.  The 
counsel  was  judicious  ;  but  the  Chancellor  declined  to  act 
upon  it,  saying", — "  When  she  was  young  and  beautiful, 
she  gave  up  everything  for  me.  What  she  is,  I  have  made 
her;  and  I  can  not  now  bring  myself  to  compel  her  incli- 
nations. Our  marriage  prevented  her  mixing  in  society 
when  it  afforded  her  pleasure  ;  it  appears  to  give  pain 
now,  and  why  should  I  interpose?"  In  his  old  age, 
when  she  was  dead,  he  visited  his  estate  in  Durham,  but 
could  not  find  heart  to  cross  the  Tyne  bridge  and  look  at 
the  old  house  from  which  he  took  her  in  the  bloom  and 
tenderness  of  her  girlhood.  An  urgent  invitation  to  visit 
Newcastle  drew  from  him  the  reply — -"  I  know  my  fellow- 
townsmen  complain  of  my  not  coming  to  see  them  ;  but 
hozv  can  I  pass  that  bridge  ?  "  After  a  pause,  he  added, 
"  Poor  Bessie  !  if  ever  there  was  an  angel  on  earth  she 
was  one.  The  only  reparation  which  one  man  can  make 
to  another  for  running  away  with  his  daughter,  is  to  be 
exemplary  in  his  conduct  towards  her." 

\w  pecuniary  affairs  not  less  prudent  than  his  brother. 
Lord  Stowell  in  matters  of  sentiment  was  capable  of 
indiscretion.  In  the  long  list  of  legal  loves  there  are  not 
many  episodes  more  truly  ridiculous  than  the  story  of 
the  older  Scott's  second  marriage.  On  April  lo,  1813, 
the  decorous  Sir  William  Scott,  and  Louisa  Catherine, 
widow  of  John,  Marquis  of  Sligo,  and  daughter  of  Ad- 
miral Lord  Howe,  were  united  in  the  bonds  of  holy 
wedlock,    to    the    infinite    amusement  of  the   world  of 


COURTS    AND     LAWYERS.  213 

fashion,  and  to  the  speedy  humiliation  of  the  bridegroom. 
So  incensed  was  Lord  Eldon  at  his  brother's  folly,  that 
he  refused  to  appear  at  the  wedding;  and  certainly  the 
Chancellor's  displeasure  was  not  without  reason,  for  the 
notorious  absurdity  of  the  affair  brought  ridicule  on  the 
whole  of  the  Scott  family  connection.  The  happy  couple 
met  for  the  first  time  in  the  Old  Bailey,  when  Sir  Wil- 
liam Scott  and  Lord  EUenborough  presided  at  the  trial 
of  the  marchioness's  son,  the  young  Marquis  of  Sligo, 
who  had  incurred  the  anger  of  the  law  by  luring  into  his 
yacht,  in  Mediterranean  waters,  two  of  the  king's  seamen. 
Throughout  the  hearing  of  that  cause  celcbre,  the  mar- 
chioness sat  in  the  fetid  court  of  the  Old  Bailey,  in  the 
hope  that  her  presence  might  rouse  among  the  jury  or 
in  the  bench  feelings  favorable  to  her  son.  This  hope 
was  disappointed.  The  verdict  having  been  given  against 
the  young  peer,  he  was  ordered  to  pay  a  fine  of  ;^5,ooo, 
and  undergo  four  months  incarceration  in  Newgate,  and 
— worse  than  fine  and  imprisonment — was  compelled  to 
listen  to  a  parental  address  from  Sir  William  Scott  on 
the  <;juties  and  responsibilities  of  men  of  high  station. 
Either  under  the  influence  of  sincere  admiration  for  the 
judge,  or  impelled  by  desire  for  vengeance  on  the  man 
who  had  presumed  to  lecture  her  son  in  a  court  of  jus- 
tice, the  marchioness  wrote  a  few  hasty  words  of  thanks 
to  Sir  William  Scott  for  his  salutary  exhortation  to  her 
boy.  She  even  went  so  far  as  to  say  that  she  wished  the 
erring  marquis  could  always  have  so  wise  a  counselor  at 
his  side.  This  communication  was  made  upon  a  slip  of 
paper,  which  the  writer  sent  to  the  judge  by  an  usher  of 
the  court.  Sir  William  read  the  note  as  he  sat  on  the 
bench,  and  having  looked  towards  the  fair  scribe,  he  re- 
ceived from  her  a  glance  and  smile  that  were  fruitful  of 
much  misery  to  him.  Within  four  months  the  courteous 
Sir   William    Scott   was   tied   fast    to  a  beautiful,  shrill, 


214 


PLEASANTRIES    OF    EXGLISH 


voluble  termagant,  who  exercised  marvelous  ingenuity  in 
rendering  him  wretched  and  contemptible.  Reared  in  a 
stately  school  of  old-world  politeness,  the  unhappy  man 
was  a  model  of  decorum  and  urbanity.  He  took  reason- 
able pride  in  the  perfection  of  his  tone  and  manner;  and 
the  marchioness — whose  malice  did  not  lack  cleverness — 
was  never  more  happy  than  when  she  was  gravely  expos- 
tulating with  him,  in  the  presence  of  numerous  auditors, 
on  his  lamentable  want  of  style,  tact,  and  gentlemanlike 
bearing.  It  is  said  that,  like  Coke  and  Holt  under  similar 
circumstances,  Sir  William  preferred  the  quietude  of  his 
chambers  to  the  society  of  an  unruly  wife,  and  that  in 
the  cellar  of  his  Inn  he  sought  compensation  for  the  in- 
dignities and  sufferings  which  he  endured  at  home.  Fifty 
years  since,  the  crusted  port  of  the  Middle  Temple  could 
soothe  the  heart  at  night,  without  paining  the  head  in 
the  morning. 


VI 
FEES    AND   BRIBES 


CHAPTER    XXIX. 


FROM  time  immemorial  popular  satire  has  been 
equally  ready  to  fix  the  shame  of  avarice  upon 
Divinity,  Physic,  and  Law  ;  and  it  can  not  be  denied  that 
in  this  matter  the  sarcasms  of  the  multitude  are  often  sus- 
tained by  the  indisputable  evidence  of  history.  The  greed 
of  the  clergy  for  tithes  and  dues  is  not  more  widely  pro- 
verbial than  the  doctor's  thirst  for  fees,  or  the  advocate's 
readiness  to  support  injustice  for  the  sake  of  gain.  Of 
Guyllyam  of  Harseley,  physician  to  Charles  VI.  of 
France,  Froissart  says,  "  All  his  dayes  he  was  one  of  the 
greatest  nygardes  that  ever  was  ;  "  and  the  chronicler 
adds,  "  With  this  rodde  lightly  all  physicyons  are  beaten." 
In  his  address  to  the  sergeants  who  were  called  soon  after 
his  elevation  to  the  Marble  Chair,  the  Lord  Keeper  Puck- 
ering, directing  attention  to  the  grasping  habits  which 
too  frequently  disgraced  the  leaders  of  the  bar,  observed  : 
"  I  am  to  exhort  you  also  not  to  embrace  multitude  of 
causes,  or  to  undertake  more  places  of  hearing  causes 
than  you  are  well  able  to  consider  of  or  perform,  lest 
thereby  you  either  disappoint  your  clients  when  their 
causes  be  heard,  or  come  unprovided,  or  depart  when 
their  causes  be  in  hearing.  For  it  is  all  one  not  to  come, 
as  either  to  come  unprovided,  or  depart  before  it  be 
ended."     Notwithstanding  Lingard's  able  defense  of  the 


2i6  PLEASANTRIES     OF    ENGLISH 

Cardinal,  scholars  are  still  generally  of  opinion  that 
B'^aufort — the  Chancellor  who  lent  money  on  the  king's 
crown,  the  bishop  who  sold  the  Pope's  soldiers  for  a 
thousand  marks — is  a  notable  instance  of  the  union  of 
legal  covetousness  and  ecclesiastical  greed. 

The  many  causes  which  affect  the  value  of  money  in 
different  ages  create  infinite  perplexity  for  the  antiquarian 
who  wishes  to  estimate  the  prosperity  of  the  bar  in  past 
times  ;  but  the  few  disjointed  data,  that  can  be  gathered 
from  old  records,  create  an  impression  that  in  the  four- 
teenth, fifteenth,  and  sixteenth  centuries  the  ordinary  fees 
of  eminent  counsel  were  by  no  means  exorbitant,  although 
fortunate  practitioners  could  make  large  incomes. 

Dugdale's  "Baronage"  describes  with  delightful  quaint- 
ness  William  de  Beauchamp's  interview  with  his  lawyers 
when  that  noble  (on  the  death  of  John  Hastings,  Earl  of 
Pembroke,  temp.  Richard  II.,  without  issue)  claimed  the 
earl's  estates  under  an  entail,  in  opposition  to  Edward 
Hastings,  the  earl's  heir-male  of  the  half-blood.  "  Beau 
champ,"  says  Dugdale,  "  invited  his  learned  counsel  to 
his  house  in  Paternoster-row,  in  the  City  of  London  ; 
among  whom  were  Robert  Charlton  (then  a  judge), 
William  Pinchbek,  William  Branchesley,  and  John 
Catesby  (all  learned  lawyers):  and  after  dinner  coming 
out  of  his  chapel,  in  an  angry  mood,  threw  to  each  of 
them  a  piece  of  gold,  and  said,  'Sirs,  I  desire  you  forth- 
with to  tell  me  whether  I  have  any  right  or  title  to 
Hastings'  lordship  and  lands.'  Whereupon  Pinchbek 
stood  up  (the  rest  being  silent,  fearing  that  he  suspected 
thein),  and  said  '  No  man  here  nor  in  England  dare  say 
that  you  have  any  right  in  them,  except  Hastings  do 
quit  his  claim  therein;  and  should  he  do  it,  being  now 
under  age,  it  would  be  of  no  validitie.'  "  Had  Cliarlton. 
the  Chief  Justice  of  the  Common  Pleas,  taken  gold  for 
his  opinion  on  a  case  put  before  him  in  his  judicial  char- 


COURTS    AND     LAWYERS.  217 

acter,  he  would  have  violated  his  judicial  oath.  But 
in  the  earl's  house  in  Paternoster-row  he  was  merely  a 
counselor  learned  in  the  law,  not  a  judge.  Manifest 
perils  attend  a  system  which  permits  a  judge  in  his  pri- 
vate character  to  give  legal  opinions  concerning  causes 
on  which  he  may  be  required  to  give  judgm_ent  from  the 
bench ;  but  notwithstanding  those  perils  there  is  no 
reason  for  thinking  that  Charlton  on  this  occasion  either 
broke  law  or  etiquette.  The  fair  inference  from  the 
matter  is,  that  in  the  closing  years  of  the  fourteenth 
century  judges  were  permitted  to  give  opinions  for  money 
to  their  private  clients,  although  they  were  forbidden  to 
take  gold  or  silver  from  any  person  having  "plea  or  pro- 
cess hanging  before  them." 

In  the  year  of  our  Lord  1500  the  corporation  of  Can- 
terbury paid  for  advice  regarding  their  civic  interests  ^i^. 
4d.  to  each  of  three  sergeants,  and  gave  the  Recorder  of 
London  6s.  Sd.  as  a  retaining-fee.  Five  years  later  Mr. 
Sergeant  Wood  received  a  fee  of  10s.  from  the  Gold- 
smiths' Company;  and  it  may  be  fairly  assumed,  that  so 
important  and  wealthy  a  body  paid  the  sergeant  on  a 
liberal  scale.  In  the  sixteenth  century  it  was,  and  for 
several  generations  had  been,  customary  for  clients  to 
provide  food  and  drink  for  their  counsel.  Mr.  Foss  gives 
his  readers  the  following  list  of  items,  taken  from  a  bill 

of  costs,  made  in  the  reign  of  Edward  IV.  : — 

s.     d. 
For  a  breakfast  at  Westminster  spent  on  our  counsel     .   i      6 
To  another  time  for  boat-hire  in  and  out,  and  a  break- 
fast for  two  days       .  I      6 

In  like  manner  the  accountant  of  St.  Margaret's,  West- 
minster, entered  in  the  parish  books,  "Also,  paid  to 
Roger  Fylpott,  learned  in  the  law,  for  his  counsel  given, 
3^.  Si;/.,  with  /\d.  for  his  dinner." 

A  yet  more  remarkable  custom  was  that  which  enabled 
clients  to  hire    counsel    to    plead    for    them    at    certain 


2i8  PLEASANTRIES    OF     ENGLISH 

places,  for  a  given  time,  in  whatever  causes  their  elo- 
quence might  be  required.  There  still  exists  the  record 
of  an  agreement  by  which,  in  the  reign  of  Henry  VII., 
.^-.icrgeant  Yaxley  bound  himself  to  attend  the  assizes  at 
York,  Nottingham  and  Derby,  and  speak  in  court  at 
each  of  those  places,  whenever  his  client,  Sir  Robert 
Plumpton — "  that  perpetual  and  always  unfortunate 
litigant,"  as  he  is  called  by  Sergeant  Manning — required 
him  to  do  so."  This  interesting  document  runs  thus — 
"This  bill  indented  at  London  the  i8th  day  of  July,  the 
i6th  yeare  of  the  reigne  of  King  Henry  the  7th,  wit- 
nesseth  that  John  Yaxley,  Sergeant-at-Law,  shall  be  at 
the  next  assizes  to  be  holden  at  York,  Nottin.,  and  Derb., 
if  they  be  holden  and  kept,  and  there  to  be  of  council 
with  Sir  Robert  Plompton,  knight,  such  assizes  and 
actions  as  the  said  Sir  Robert  shall  require  the  said  John 
Yaxley,  for  the  which  premisses,  as  well  for  his  costs 
and  his  labours,  John  Pulan,  gentleman,  bindeth  him  by 
thease  presents  to  content  and  pay  to  the  said  John 
Yaxley  40  marks  sterling  at  the  feast  of  the  Nativetie  of 
our  Lady  next  coming,  or  within  eight  days  next  follow- 
ing, with  5  li  paid  aforehand,  parcell  of  paiment  of  the 
said  40  marks.  Provided  alway  that  if  the  said  Jolin 
Yaxley  have  knowledg  and  warning  only  to  cum  to  Not- 
tin,  and  Derby,  then  the  said  John  Yaxley  is  agread  by 
these  presents  to  take  only  xv  li  besides  the  5  li  afore- 
said. Provided  alwaies  that  if  the  said  Jolin  Yaxley 
have  knowledge  and  warning  to  take  no  labour  in  this 
matter,  then  he  to  reteine  and  hold  the  said  5  li  resaived 
for  his  good  will  and  labour.  In  witness  hereof,  the  said 
John  Yaxley,  sergeant,  to  the  part  of  this  indenture  re- 
maining with  the  said  John  Pulan  have  put  his  seale 
the  day  and  yeare  above-written.  Provided  also  that 
the  said  Sir  Robert  Plompton  shall  beare  the  charges  of 
the  said  John  Yaxley,  as  well  at  York  as  at  Nottingham 


COURTS    AND     LAWYERS.  219 

and  Derby,  and  also  to  content  and  pay  the  said  money 
to  the  sayd  John  Yaxley  coined  to  the  said  assizes  aLt 
Nott.,  Derb.,  and  York.  "  JOHN  Yaxley," 

This  remarkable  agreement — made  after  Richard  III. 
had  vainly  endeavored  to  compose  by  arbitration  the 
diiTerences  between  Sir  Robert  and  Sir  Robert's  heirs- 
general — certifies  that  Sir  Robert  Plumpton  engaged  to 
provide  the  sergeant  with  suitable  entertainment  at  the 
assize  towns,  and  also  throws  light  upon  the  origin  of 
retaining-fees.  It  appears  from  the  agreement  that  in 
olden  time  a  retaining-fee  was  merely  part  (surrendered 
in  advance)  of  a  certain  sum  stipulated  to  be  paid  for 
certain  services.  In  principle  it  was  identical  with  the 
payment  of  the  shilling,  still  given  in  rural  districts,  to 
domestic  servants  on  an  agreement  for  service,  and  with 
the  transfer  of  the  Queen's  shilling  given  to  every  soldier 
on  enlistment.  There  is  no  need  to  mention  the  classic 
origin  of  this  ancient  mode  of  giving  force  to  a  contract. 

From  the  *'  Household  and  Privy  Purse  Expenses  of 
the  Le  Strange  of  Hunstanton,"  published  in  the  Archae- 
ologia,  may  be  gleaned  some  interesting"  particulars 
relating  to  the  payment  of  counsel  in  the  reign  of  Henry 
VIII.  In  1520,  Mr.  Cristofer  Jenny  received  from  the 
La  Stranges  a  half-yearly  fee  of  ten  shillings;  and  tius 
general  retainer  was  continued  on  the  same  terms  till 
1527,  when  the  fee  was  raised  from  £\  per  annum  to 
a  yearly  payment  of  £2  I'^s.  \d.  To  Mr.  Knightly  was 
paid  the  sum  of  ^s.  i\d.  "for  his  fee,  and  that  money 
yt  he  layde  oute  for  suying  of  Symon  Holden  ;  "  an'd  the 
same  lawyer  also  received  at  another  time  14^'.  yi.  "  for 
his  fee  and  cost  of  sute  for  iii  termes."  A  fee  of  6s.  SJ. 
was  paid  to  "  Mr.  Spelman,  s'jeant,  for  his  counsell  in 
makyng  my  answer  in  ye  Duchy  Cham. ;  "  and  the  same 
sergeant  received  a  fee  of  35'.  4.^.  •'  for  his  counsell  in 
putting   in  of  the  answer."     Fees  of  ^s.  4^/.  were  in  like 


2  20  PLEASANTRIES    OF    ENGLISH 

manner  c^iv^en  "  for  counsell  "  to  Mr.  Knightlcy  and  Mr. 
Whyte ;  and  in  1534,  Mr.  Yelverton  was  remunerated 
"  for  his  counse'.l  "  with  the  unusually  liberal  honorarium 
of  twenty  shillings.  From  the  household  book  of  the 
Earl  of  Northumberland,  it  appears  that  order  was  made, 
in  this  same  reign,  for  "every  oone  of  my  lordes  coun- 
saiil  to  have  c's.  fees,  if  he  have  it  in  household  and  not 
by  patent."  After  the  earl's  establishment  was  reduced 
to  forty-two  persons  it  still  retained  "  one  of  my  lordes 
counsaill  for  answering  and  riddying  of  causes,  whenne 
sutors  Cometh  to  my  lord."  At  a  time  when  every  lord 
was  required  to  administer  justice  to  his  tenants  and  the 
inferior  people  of  his  territory,  a  counselor  learned  in  the 
law  was  an  important  and  most  necessary  officer  in  a 
grand  seigneur's  retinue. 

While  Sir  Thomas  More  lived  in  Bucklebur}',  he 
"  gained,  without  grief,  not  so  little  as  ;^400  by  the 
year."  This  income  doubtless  accrued  from  the  emolu- 
ments of  his  judicial  appointment  in  the  City,  as  well  as 
from  his  practice  at  Westminster  and  elsewhere  In 
Henry  VIII. 's  time  it  was  a  very  considerable  income, 
such  as  was  equaled  by  few  leaders  of  the  bar  not  holding 
high  office  under  the  Crown. 

In  Elizabeth's  reign,  and  during  the  time  of  her  succes- 
sor, barristers'  fees  show  a  tendency  towards  increase; 
and  the  lawyers  who  were  employed  as  advocates  for  the 
Crown,  or  held  judicial  appointments,  acquired  princely 
incomes,  and  in  some  cases  amassed  large  fortunes.  Fees 
of  20s.  were  more  generally  paid  to  counsel  under  the 
virgin  queen,  than  in  the  days  of  her  father;  but  still  half 
that  fee  was  not  thought  too  small  a  sum  for  an  opinion 
given  by  Her  Majesty's  Solicitor-General.  Indeed,  the 
ten-shilling  fee  was  a  very  usual  fee  in  Elizabeth's  reign  ; 
and  it  long  continued  an  ordinary  payment  for  one 
opinion   on   a    case,    or  for  one    speech    in    a   cause    of 


COURTS    AND     LAWYERS.  zii 

no  great  importance  and  of  few  difficulties.  "A  bar- 
rister is  like  Balaam's  ass,  only  speaking  when 
he  sees  the  angel,"  was  a  familiar  saying  in  the  seven- 
teenth century.  In  Chancery,  however,  by  an  ordinance 
of  the  Lords  Commissioners,  passed  in  1654,  to  regulate 
the  conduct  of  suits  and  the  payments  to  masters,  coun- 
sel, and  solicitors,  it  was  arranged  that  on  the  hearing  of 
a  cause  utter-barristers  should  receive  ^i  fees,  while 
the  Lord  Protector's  counsel  and  sergeants-at-law  should 
receive  £2  fees,  /.  e.  "  double  fees." 

The  archives  of  Lyme  Regis  show  that  under  Eliza- 
beth the  usage  was  maintained  of  supplying  counsel  with 
delicacies  for  the  table,  and  also  providing  them  with 
means  of  locomotion.  Here  are  some  items  in  an  old  re- 
cord of  disbursements  made  by  the  corporation  of  Lyme 
Regis  : — "  A.  D.  Paid  for  wine  carried  with  us  to  Mr. 
Poulett — £0  3j".  6d.  ;  Wine  and  sugar  given  to  Mr. 
Poulett,  £0  2,s.  4<^. ;  Horse-hire,  and  for  the  sergeant  to 
ride  to  Mr.  Walrond,  of  Bovey,  and  for  a  loaf  of  sugar, 
and  for  conserves  given  there  to  Mr.  Poppel,  £\  \s.  od.', 
Wine  and  sugar  given  to  Judge  Anderson,  ;^o  3^".  4^.  A 
bottle  and  sugar  given  to  Mr.  Gibbs  (a  lawyer)." 

Under  Elizabeth,  the  allowance  made  to  Queen's  Ser- 
geants was  i^26  6s.  Sd.  for  fee,  reward,  and  robes;  and 
;{^20  for  his  services  whenever  a  Queen's  Sergeant  traveled 
circuit  as  Justice  of  Assize.  The  fee  for  her  Solicitor- 
General  was  ;^50.  When  Francis  Bacon  was  created 
King's  Counsel  to  James  L,  an  annual  salary  of  forty 
pounds  was  assigned  to  him  from  the  royal  purse;  and 
down  to  William  IV. 's  time  King's  Counsel  received  a 
stipend  of  ^40  a  year  and  an  allowance  for  stationery. 
Under  the  last-mentioned  monarch,  however,  the  stipend 
and  allowance  were  both  withdrawn;  and  at  present  the 
status  of  a  Q.  C.  is  purely  an  affair  of  professional  prece- 
dence, to  which  no  fixed  emolument  is  attached. 


2r.2  PLEASANTRIES    OF     ENGLISH 

Eui  a  list  of  the  fees,  paid  from  the  royal  purse  to  each 
juvi,^;e  or  crown  lawyer  under  James  I.,  would  afford  no 
indication  as  to  the  incomes  enjoyed  by  the  leading 
members  of  the  bench  and  bar  at  that  period.  The  sala- 
ries paid  to  those  officers  were  merely  retaining-fees,  and 
their  chief  remuneration  consisted  of  a  large  number  of 
smaller  fees.  Like  the  judges  of  prior  reigns,  King 
James's  judges  were  forbidden  to  accept  presents  from 
actual  suitors;  but  no  suitor  could  obtain  a  hearing  from 
any  one  of  them  until  he  had  paid  into  court' certain 
fees,  of  which  the  fattest  was  a  sum  of  money  for  the 
judge's  personal  use.  At  one  time  many  persons  labored 
under  an  erroneous  impression  that  as  judges  were  for- 
bidden to  accept  presents  from  actual  suitors,  the  honest 
judge  of  past  times  had  no  revenue  besides  his  specified 
salary  and  allowance.  Like  the  king's  judges,  the  king's 
counselors  frequently  made  great  incomes  by  fees, 
though  their  nominal  salaries  were  invariably  insignif- 
icant. At  a  time  when  Francis  Bacon  was  James's 
Attorney-General,  and  received  no  more  than  £Z\  6s. 
S(/.  for  his  yearly  salary,  he  made  £6,000  per  annum  in 
his  profession  ;  and  of  that  income — a  ro)-al  income  in 
those  days — the  greater  portion  consisted  of  fees  paid  to 
him  for  attending  to  the  king's  business.  "  I  shall  now," 
Bacon  wrote  to  the  king,  "  again  make  oblation  to  your 
Majesty, — first  of  my  heart,  then  of  my  service  ;  thirdly, 
of  my  place  of  Attorney,  which  I  think  is  honestly  worth 
;^6,ooo  per  annum;  and  fourthly,  of  my  place  in  the  Star 
Chamber,  which  is  worth  iJ"i,6oo  per  annum,  and  with 
the  favor  and  countenance  of  a  Chancellor,  much  more." 
Coke  had  made  a  still  larger  income  during  his  tenure  of 
the  Attorney's  place,  the  fees  from  his  private  and  offi- 
cial practice  amounting  to  no  less  a  sum  than  seven 
thousand  pounds  in  a  single  year. 

At  later  periods  of  the  seventeenth  century  barristers 


COURTS    AND     LAWYERS.  223 

made  large  incomes,  but  the  fees  seem  to  have  been  by  no 
means  exorbitant.  Junior  barristers  received  very  modest 
payments,  and  it  would  appear  that  juniors  received  fees 
from  eminent  counsel  for  opiiiions  and  other  professional 
services.  While  he  acted  as  Treasurer  of  the  Middle 
Temple  at  an  early  period  of  his  career,  Whitelock  re- 
ceived a  fee  from  Attorney-General  Noy.  "  Upon  my 
carrying  the  bill,"  writes  Whitelock,  "  to  Mr,  Attorney- 
General  Noy  for  his  signature,  with  that  of  the  other 
bei^ichers,  he  was  pleased  to  advise  with  me  about  a  patent 
tlie  king  had  commanded  him  to  draw,  upon  which  he 
gave  me  a  fee  for  it  out  of  his  little  purse,  saying,  '  Here, 
take  those  single  pence,'  which  amounted  to  eleven 
groats,  '  and  I  give  you  more  than  an  attorney's  fee,  be- 
cause you  will  be  a  better  man  than  the  Attorney-Gen- 
eral. This  you  will  find  to  be  true.'  After  much  other 
drollery,  wherein  he  delighted  and  excelled,  we  parted, 
abundance  of  company  attending  to  speak  to  him  all  this 
time."  Of  course  the  payment  of  itself  was  no  part  of  the 
drollery  to  which  Whitelock  alludes,  for  as  a  gentleman 
he  could  not  have  taken  money  proffered  to  him  in  jest, 
unless  etiquette  encouraged  him  to  look  for  it  and  allowed 
him  to  accept  it.  The  incident  justifies  the  inference  that 
the  services  of  junior  counsel  to  senior  barristers — services 
at  the  present  time  termed  "deviling" — were  formerly 
remunerated  with  cash  payments. 

Towards  the  close  of  Charles  I.'s  reign — at  a  time 
when  political  distractions  were  injuriously  affecting  the 
legal  profession,  especially  the  stanch  royalists  of  the 
long  robe — Maynard,  the  Parliamentary  lawyer,  received 
on  one  round  of  the  Western  Circuit,  ;i^ 700,  "  which," 
observes  Whitelock,  to  whom  Maynard  communicated 
the  fact,  "  I  believe  was  more  than  any  one  of  our  pro- 
fession got  before." 

Concerning  the  incomes  made  by  eminent  counsel  in 


2  24  PLEASANTRIES     OF     ENGLISH 

Charles  II. 's  time,  many  data  are  preserved  in  diaries 
and  memoirs.  That  a  thousand  a  year  was  looked  upon 
as  a  good  income  for  a  flourishing  practitioner  of  the 
"  merry  monarch's  "  Chancery  bar  may  be  gathered  from 
a  passage  in  "  Pepys'  Diary,"  where  the  writer  records  the 
compliments  paid  to  him  regarding  his  courageous  and 
eloquent  defense  of  the  Admiralty  before  the  House  of 
Commons  in  March,  1668.  Under  the  influence  of  half- 
a-pint  of  mulled  sack  and  a  dram  of  brandy,  the  Admir- 
alty clerk  made  such  a  spirited  and  successful  speech 
in  behalf  of  his  department,  that  he  was  thought  to  have 
effectually  silenced  all  grumblers  against  the  management 
of  his  Majesty's  navy.  Compliments  flowed  in  upon  the 
orator  from  all  directions.  Sir  William  Coventry  pledged 
his  judgment  that  the  fame  of  the  oration  would  last  for 
ever  in  the  Commons  ;  silver-tongued  Sir  Heneage  Finch, 
in  the  blandest  tones,  averred  that  no  other  living  man 
could  have  made  so  excellent  a  speech  ;  the  placemen  of 
the  Admiralty  vied  with  each  other  in  expressions  of  de- 
light and  admiration  ;  and  one  flatterer,  whose  name  is 
not  recorded,  caused  Mr.  Pepys  infinite  pleasure  by  say- 
ing that  the  speaker  who  had  routed  the  accusers  of  a 
government  office,  might  easily  earn  a  thousand  a  year 
at  the  Chancery  bar. 

That  sum,  however,  is  insignificant,  when  it  is  compared 
with  the  incomes  made  by  the  most  fortunate  advocates 
of  that  period.  Eminent  speakers  of  the  Common-Law 
Bar  made  between  ;^2,ooo  and  ;!{^3,500  per  annum  on 
circuit  and  at  Westminster,  without  the  aid  of  king's 
business;  and  still  larger  receipts  were  recorded  in  the 
fee-books  of  his  Majesty's  attorneys  aud  solicitors.  At 
the  Chancery  bar  of  the  second  Charles  there  was  at  least 
one  lawyer  who  in  one  year  made  considerably  more  than 
four  times  the  income  that  was  suggested  to  Pepys'  vanity 
and  self-complacence.     At  Stanford   Court,   Worcester- 


COURTS    AND     LAWYERS.  225 

shire,  is  preserved  a  fee-book  kept  by  Sir  Francis 
Wilmington,  Solicitor-General  to  the  "  merry  monarch," 
from  December,  1674,  to  January  13,  1679,  from  the 
entries  of  which  record  the  reader  may  form  a  tolerably 
correct  estimate  of  the  professional  revenues  of  successful 
lawyers  at  that  time.  In  Easter  Term,  1671,  Sir  Francis 
pocketed  iJ^459 ;  in  Trinity  Term  ;^449  los. ;  in  Michael- 
mas Term  £^11  ;  and  in  Hilary  Term,  1672,  ^361,  \os. 
the  income  for  the  year  being  ^1,791,  without  his  earn- 
ings on  the  Oxford  Circuit  and  during  vacation.  In  1673 
Sir  Francis  received  ;^3,37i  ;  in  1674,  he  earned  ^3,560 ; ' 
and  in  1675 — i.e.,  the  first  year  of  his  tenure  of  the  Soli- 
citor's office — his  professional  income  was  ^4,066,  of 
which  sum  ^429  were  office  fees.  Concerning  the  At- 
torney-General's receipts  about  this  time,  we  have  suffi- 
cient information  from  Roger  North,  who  records  that 
his  brother,  while  Attorney-General,  made  nearly  seven 
thousand  pounds  in  one  year,  from  private  and  official 
business.  It  is  noteworthy  that  North,  as  Attorney  Gen- 
eral, made  the  same  income  which  Coke  realized  in  the 
same  office  at  the  commencement  of  the  century.  But 
under  the  Stuarts  this  large  income  of  ;^ 7,000 — in  those 
days  a  princely  revenue — was  earned  by  work  so  perilous 
and  fruitful  of  obloquy,  that  even  Sir  Francis,  who  loved 
money  and  cared  little  for  public  esteem,  was  glad  to 
resign  the  post  of  Attornej^,  and  retire  to  the  Pleas  with 
£\,000  a  year.  That  the  fees  of  the  Chancery  lawyers 
under  Charles  II.  were  regulated  upon  a  liberal  scale  we 
know   from    Roger   North,  and   the  record    of    Sir  John 

*  In  bis  '•  Survey  of  the  State  of  England  in  1685,"  Macaulav — giving  one 
of  those  misleading  references  with  which  his  history  alxninds,  says :  "A 
ihonsand  a  year  was  tl. ought  a  large  income  for  a  barrister.  Two  thousfcnd 
a  year  was  hardly  to  be  made  in  the  Court  of  King's  Bench,  except  by  croiA'n 
lawyers."  While  making  the  first  statement  he  doubtless  remembered  the 
passage  in  "  Pepys'  Diary."  For  the  second  statement  he  refers  to  "  Layton'y 
Conversations  with  Chief  Justice  Hale."  It  is  fair  to  assume  that  Lord 
Macaulay  had  never  seen  Sir  Francis  Winnington's  fee-book. 
i.--r5 


226  PLEASANTRIES    OF    ENGLISH 

King's  success.  Speaking  of  his  brother  Francis,  the 
biographer  says:  "After  he,  as  king's  counsel,  came 
within  the  bar,  he  began  to  have  calls  into  the  Court  of 
Chancery  ;  which  he  liked  very  well,  because  the  quan- 
tity of  the  business,  as  lucll  as  the  fees,  was  greater  ;  but 
his  home  was  the  King's  Bench,  where  he  sat  and  re- 
ported like  as  other  practitioners."  And  in  Sir  John 
King's  memoirs  it  is  recorded  that  in  1676,  he  made 
^4,700,  and  that  he  received  from  £/^o  to  ^50  a  day, 
during  the  last  four  days  of  his  appearance  in  court.  Dy- 
ing in  1677,'  while  his  supremacy  in  his  own  court  was  at 
its  height,  Sir  John  King  was  long  spoken  of  as  a  singu- 
larly successful  Chancery  barrister. 

Of  Francis  North's  mode  of  taking  and  storing  his  fees, 
the  "  Life  of  Lord  Keeper  Guilford  "  gives  the  following 
picture:  "His  business  increased,  even  while  he  was 
Solicitor;  to  be  so  mucli  as  to  have  overwhelmed  one 
less  dexterous  ;  but  when  he  was  made  Attorney-Gen- 
eral, though  his  gains  by  his  office  were  great,  they  were 
much  greater  by  his  practice  ;  for  that  flowed  in  upon  him 
like  an  orage,  enough  to  overset  one  that  had  not  an 
extraordinary  .readiness  in  business.  His  skull-caps, 
which  he  wore  when  he  had  leisure  to  observe  his  con- 
stitution, as  I  touched  before,  were  now  destined  to  lie  in 
a  drawer  to  receive  the  money  that  came  in  by  fees.  One 
had  the  gold,  another  the  crowns  and  lialf-crowns,  and 
another  the  smaller  money.  When  these  vessels  were  full, 
they  were  committed  to  his  friend  (the  Hon.  Roger  North), 

' "  In  tlie  fourth  day  of  his  fever,  he  being  att  the  Chancery  Bar,  he  fell  so 
ill  of  the  fever  that  he  was  forced  to  leave  the  court  and  come  to  his  cham- 
bers in  the  Temple  with  one  of  his  clerks  which  constantly  wayted  on  him 
and  carried  his  bags  of  writings  for  his  pleadings,  and  there  told  him  that  he 
should  return  to  every  clyant  his  breviat  and  his  fee,  for  he  could  serve  them 
no  longer,  for  he  had  done  with  this  world,  and  thence  came  home  to  Ins 
house  in  Salisbury  Court,  and  took  his  bed.  .  .  .  And  there  he  sequestded 
himself  to  meditation  between  God  and  his  own  soul,  without  the  least  re- 
gret, and  quietly  and  patiently  contented  himself  with  the  will  of  God.'  — 
Vide  Memoir  oj  Sir  yjhii  King,  Knt.,  luritUii  by  his  father. 


COURTS    AND     LAWYERS.  227 

v:ho  was  constantly  near  him,  to  tell  out  the  cash,  and 
put  it  into  the  ba;4s  accordini^  to  the  contents;  and  so 
they  went  to  his  treasurers',  Blanchard  and  Child,  ^'old- 
smiths.  Temple  Bar." '  In  tlie  days  of  wigs,  skuH-caps 
like  those  which  Francis  North  used  as  receptacles  for 
money,  were  very  generally  worn  by  men  of  all  classes 
and  employments.  On  returning  to  the  privacy  of  his 
r.ome,  a  c. ireful  citizen  usually  laid  aside  his  costly  wig, 
and  replaced  it  with  a  cheap  and  durable  skull-cap,  before 
he  sat  down  in  his  parlor.  So  also,  men  careful  of 
their  health  often  wore  skull-caps  under  their  wigs  on 
occasions  when  they  were  required  to  endure  a  raw  atmos- 
phere without  the  protection  of  th.-ir  beavers.  In  days 
when  the  law-courts  were  held  in  the  open  hall  of  West- 
minster, and  lawyers  practicing  therein  were  compelled  to 
sit  or  speak  for  hours  together,  exposed  to  sharp  currents 
of  cold  air,  it  was  customary  for  wearers  of  the  long  robe 
to  place  between  their  wigs  and  natural  hair  closely- 
fitting  caps,  made  of  stout  silk  or  soft  leather.  But 
more  interesting  than  tlie  money-caps  are  the  fees  which 
they  contained.     The  ringing  of  the  gold  pieces,  the  clink 

'  The  lawyers  of  the  seventeenth  century  were  accustomed  to  make  a  show 
of  thcii'  fees  to  the  clients  who  called  upon  them.  Hudibras's  lawyer  (Hud., 
Part  iii.  cant.  3)  is  described  as  sitting  in  state  with  his  books  and  n"oney 
before  him : — 

"To  this  brave  man  the  knight  repairs 

For  counsel  in  his  law  affairs, 

And  found  him  mounted  in  his  pew, 

With  books  and  money  placed  for  shew, 

Like  ne.-t-egg'i,  to  make  clients  lay, 

And  for  his  false  opinion  pay: 

To  whom  the  knight,  with  comely  grace, 

Put  off  his  hat  to  put  his  case, 

Which  he  as  proudly  entertain'd 

As  the  other  courteously  strain'd  ; 

And  to  assure  him  'tu'as  not  that 

He  looked  for,  bid  him  put  on  's  hat." 
Under  Victoria,  the  needy  junior  is  compelled,  for  the  sake  of  appearances. 
tc  fu'.nisii  his  shelves  wiih   law    books,  and  covers  his  table  with  counterfeit 
briefs.     Under  the  Stuarts,  he  placed  a  bowl  of  spurious  money  among  the 
sham  p.apcrs  that  lay  upon  his  table. 


2  28  PLEASANTRIES    OF    ENGLISH 

vof  the  crowns  with  the  half-crowns,  and  the  rattle  of  tlic 
smaller  money,  lead  back  the  barrister  to  those  happier 
and  remote  times,  when  the  "  inferior  order  "  of  the  pro- 
fession paid  tb.e  superior  order  with  "money  down;" 
when  the  advocate  never  opened  his  mouth  till  his  fingers 
liad  closed  upon  the  gold  of  his  trustful  client;  when 
"  credit  "  vras  unknown  in  transactions  between  counsel 
and  attorney  ; — that  truly  golden  age  of  the  bar,  when  the 
barrister  was  less  suspicious  of  the  attorney,  and  the  at- 
torney held  less  power  over  the  barrister. 

Having  profited  by  the  liberal  payments  of  Chancery 
while  he  was  an  advocate,  Lord  Keeper  Guilford  de- 
stroyed one  source  of  profit  to  counsel  from  which 
Francis  North,  the  barrister,  had  drawn  many  a  capful! 
of  money.  Saith  Roger,  "  He  began  to  rescind  all 
motions  for  speeding  and  delaying  the  hearing  of  causes 
besides  the  ordinary  rule  of  court;  and  this  lopped  off  a 
limb  of  the  motion  practice.  I  have  heard  Sir  John 
Churchill,  a  famous  Chancery  practitioner,  say,  that  in 
his  walk  from  Lincoln's  Inn  down  to  the  Temple  Hall, 
where,  in  the  Lord  Keeper  Bridgman's  time,  causes  and 
motions  out  of  term  were  heard,  he  had  taken  £2^  with 
breviates  only  for  motions  and  defenses  for  hastening  and 
retarding  hearings.  His  lordship  said,  that  the  rule  of 
the  court  allowed  time  enough  for  any  one  to  proceed 
or  defend  ;  and  if  for  special  reasons  he  should  give  way 
to  orders  for  timing  matters,  it  would  let  in  a  deluge  of 
vexatious  pretenses,  which,  true  or  false,  being  asserted 
by  the  counsel  with  equal  assurance,  distracted  the  court 
and  confounded  the  suitors." 

Let  due  honor  be  rendered  to  one  Caroline  lawyer 
who  was  remarkable  for  his  liberality  to  clients  and  care- 
lessness of  his  own  pecuniary  interests.  From  his  various 
biographers  many  pleasant  stories  may  be  gleaned  con- 
cerning Hale's  freedom  from  base  love  of  money.     In  hi'; 


COURTS    AND     LAWYERS.  2:9 

days,  and  long  afterwards,  professional  etiquette  per- 
mitted clients  and  counsel  to  hold  intercourse  without 
the  intervention  of  an  attorney.  Suitors,  therefore,  fre- 
quently addressed  him  personally,  and  paid  for  his  advice 
with  their  own  hands,  just  as  patients  are  still  accus- 
tomed to  fee  their  doctors.  To  these  personal  applicants, 
and  also  to  clients  who  approached  him  by  their  agents, 
h.e  was  very  liberal.  "  When  those  who  came  to  ask  his 
counsel  gave  him  a  piece,  he  used  to  give  back  the  half, 
and  to  make  ten  shillings  his  fee  in  ordinary  matters  that 
did  not  require  much  time  or  study."  From  this  it  may 
be  inferred  that  while  Hale  was  an  emiment  member  of 
the  bar  twenty  shillings  was  the  usual  fee  to  a  leading 
counsel,  and  an  angel  the  customary  honorarium  to  an 
ordinary  practitioner.  As  readers  have  already  been 
told,  the  angel  *  was  a  common  fee  in  the  seventeenth 
century;  but  the  story  of  Hale's  generous  usage  implies 
that  his  more  distinguished  contemporaries  were  wont  to 
look  for  and  accept  a  double  fee.  Moreover,  the  anec- 
dote would  not  be  told  in  Hale's  honor  if  etiquette  had 
fixed  the  double  fee  as  the  minimum  of  remuneration  for 
a  superior  barrister's  opinion.  He  was  frequently  em- 
ployed in  arbitration  cases,  and  as  an  arbitrator  he 
steadily  refused  payment  for  his  services  to  legal  dis- 
putants, saying  in  explanation  of  his  moderation,  "  In 
these  cases  I  am  made  a  judge,  and  a  judge  ought  to  take 

'  In  the  "  Servieiis  ad  Legem,"  Mr.  Sergeant  Manning  raises  questions 
concerning  the  antiquity  o'i  guineas  and  half-guineas  with  the  following  re- 
marks : — "  Should  any  cavil  be  raised  against  this  jocular  allusion,  on  the 
ground  that  guineas  and  half-guineas  were  unknown  to  sergeants  who 
flourished  in  the  sixteenth  century,  tlie  objector  might  be  reminded,  that  in 
antique  records,  ins:ances  occur  in  wliicli  the  'guianois  d'or,'  issued  from 
the  ducal  mint  at  Bourdeaux,  by  tiie  authority  of  the  Plantagenet  sovereigns 
of  Guienne,  were  by  the  same  authority,  made  current  among  their  English 
subjects;  and  it  migiit  be  suggested  that  those  who  have  gone  to  the  co.ist 
of  Africa  for  the  origin  of  the  modern  guinea,  need  not  have  can  led  tlieir 
researches  beyond  the  Bay  of  Biscay.  Qiicere,  whether  the  Guinea  Coast 
itself  may  not  owe  its  name  to  the  '  guianois  d'or'  for  which  it  furnished 
the  raw  material." 


230 


PLEASANTRIES    OF     ENGLISH 


wo  money."  The  misapprehension  as  to  the  nature  of  an 
arbirrator's  functions  displayed  in  these  words  gives  an 
instructive  insight  into  the  mental  constitution  of  the 
judge  who  wrote  on  natural  science,  and  at  the  same  time 
'^ixerted  himself  to  secure  the  conviction  of  witches.  A 
more  pleasant  and  commendable  illustration  of  his  con- 
scientiousness in  pecuniary  matters  is  found  in  the  steadi- 
ness with  which  he  refused  to  throw  upon  society  the 
spurious  coin  which  he  had  taken  from  his  clients.  In  a 
tone  of  surprise  that  raises  a  smile  at  the  average  morality 
of  our  forefathers,  Bishop  Burnet  tells  of  Hale  :  "  Another 
remarkable  instance  of  his  justice  and  goodness  was,  that 
when  he  found  ill-money  had  been  put  into  his  hands,  he 
would  never  suffer  it  to  be  vented  again  ;  for  he  thought 
it  was  no  excuse  for  him  to  put  false  money  in  other 
people's  hands  because  some  had  put  it  into  his.  A  great 
heap  of  this  he  liad  gathered  together,  for  many  had  so 
abused  his  goodness  as  to  mix  base  money  among  the  fees 
that  were  given  him."  In  this  particular  case  the  judge's 
virtue  was  its  own  reward.  His  house  being  entered  by 
burglars,  this  accumulation  of  bad  money  attracted  the 
notice  of  the  robbers,  who  selected  it  from  a  variety  of 
goods  and  chattels  and  carried  it  off  under  the  impres- 
sion that  it  was  the  lawyer's  hoarded  treasure.  Besides 
large  sums  expended  on  unusual  acts  of  charity,  this  good 
man  habitually  distributed  among  the  poor  a  tithe  of  his 
professional  earnings. 

In  the  seventeenth  century  General  Retainers  were 
very  common,  and  counsel  learned  in  the  law  were  ready 
to  accept  them  from  persons  of  low  extraction  and  ques- 
tionable repute.  Indeed,  no  upstart  deemed  himself 
properly  equipped  for  a  campaign  at  court  until  he  had 
recorded  a  fictitious  pedi;^ree  at  the  Heralds'  College, 
taken  a  barrister  as  well  as  a  doctor  into  regular  employ- 
ment,  and  hired  a  curate  to  say  grace  daily  at  his  table. 


I 


COURTS    AND     LAWYERS.  231 

In  the  summer  of  his  vile  triumph  Titus  Oates  was 
attended,  on  public  occasions,  by  a  robed  counsel  and  a 
physician. 


CHAPTER   XXX. 

P EMBERTON'S  fees  for  his  services  in  behalf  of  the 
Seven  Bishops  show  that  the  most  eminent  counsel 
of  his  time  was  content  with  very  modest  remuneration 
for  advice  and  eloquence.  From  the  bill  of  an  attorney 
employed  in  that  famous  trial,  it  appears  that  the  ex- 
Chief  Justice  was  paid  a  retaining-fee  of  five  guineas, 
and  received  twenty  guineas  with  his  brief.  He  also 
pocketed  three  guineas  for  a  consultation.  At  the  pres- 
ent date,  thirty  times  the  sum  of  these  paltry  payments 
would  be  thought  an  inadequate  compensation  for  such 
zeal,  judgment,  and  ability  as  Francis  Pemberton  dis- 
played in  the  defense  of  his  reverend  clients. 

But,  though  lawyers  were  paid  thus  moderately  in  the 
seventeenth  century,  the  complaints  concerning  tlieir 
avarice  and  extortions  were  loud  and  universal.  This 
public  discontent  was  due  to  the  inordinate  exactions  of 
judges  and  place-holders  rather  than  to  the  conduct  of 
barristers  and  attorneys;  but  popular  displeasure  seldom 
cares  to  discriminate  between  the  blameless  and  the 
culpable  members  of  an  obnoxious  system,  or  to  dis- 
tinguish between  the  errors  of  ancient  custom  and  the 
qualities  -of  those  persons  who  are  required  to  carry  out 
old  rules.  Hence  the  really  honest  and  useful  practi- 
tioners of  the  law  endured  a  full  share  of  the  obloquy 
cavjsed  by  the  misconduct  of  venal  justices  and  corrupt 
officials.  Counsel,  attorneys,  and  even  scriveners  came 
in  for  abuse.  It  was  averred  that  they  conspired  to 
pick  the  public  pocket,  that  eminent  conveyancers,  net 


232  PLEASANTRIES     OF    ENGLISH 

less  than  cop\'inp^  clerks,  swelled  their  emoluments  by 
knavish  tricks.  They  would  talk  for  the  mere  purpose 
of  protracting  litigation,  injure  their  clients  by  vexatious 
and  bootl::^ss  dela)'s,  and  do  their  work  so  that  they 
might  be  feed  for  doing  it  again.  Draughtsmen  and 
their  clerks  wrote  loosely  and  wordily,  because  they  were 
paid  by  the  folio.  "  A  term,"  writes  the  quaint  author 
of  "Saint  Hillaries  Teares,"  in  1642,  "so  like  a  vacation  ; 
the  prime  court,  the  Chancery  (wherein  the  clerks  had 
wont  to  dash  their  clients  out  of  countenance  with  long 
dashes);  the  examiners  to  take  the  depositions  in  hyper- 
boles, and  roundabout  /'^6'i^////^(9^t/ circumstances  with  saids 
and  aforcsaids,  to  enlarge  the  number  of  sheets."  "  Hud- 
ibras  "  contains,  among  other  pungent  satires  against  the 
usages  of  lawyers,  an  allusion  to  this  characteristic  cus- 
tom of  legal  draughtsmen,  who,  being  paid  by  the  sheet, 
were  wont 

'"To  make  'twixt  words  and  lines  large  gaps, 
Wide  as  meridians  in  maps: 
To  squander  paper  and  spare  ink, 
Or  cheat  men  of  their  words  some  think." 

In  the  following  century  the  abuses  consequent  on  the 
objectionable  system  of  folio-payment  were  noticed  in  a 
parliamentary  report  (bearing  date  November  8,  1740), 
which  was  the  most  important  result  of  an  ineffectual 
attempt  to  reform  the  superior  courts  of  law  and  to 
lessen  the  expenses  of  litigation. 

More  is  known  about  the  professional  receipts  of  law- 
yers since  the  Revolution  of  1688  than  can  be  discovered 
concerning  the  incomes  of  thefr  precursors  in  Westmins- 
ter Hall.  For  six  years,  commencing  with  Michaelmas 
Term,  1719,  Sir  John  Cheshire,  King's  Sergeant,  made  an 
average  annual  income  of  ;^3. 241.  Being  then  sixty-three 
years  of  age,  he  limited  his  practice  to  the  Common  Pleas, 
and  during  the  next  six  years  made  in  that  one  court 
;^ 1, 330 per  annum.  Mr.  Foss,  to  whom  the  present  writer 


COURTS    AND     LAWYERS.  233 

is  indebted  for  these  particulars  with  regard  to  Sir  John 
Cheshire's  receipts,  adds  :  "  The  fees  of  counsel's  clerks 
form  a  orreat  contrast  with  those  that  are  now  demanded, 
being  only  threepence  on  a  fee  of  half-a-guinea,  sixpence 
for  a  guinea,  and  one  shilling  for  two  guineas."  Of 
course  the  increase  of  clerk's  fees  tells  more  in  favor  of 
the  master  than  the  servant.  i\t  the  present  time  the 
clerk  of  a  barrister  in  fairly  lucrative  practice  costs  his 
master  nothing.  Bountifully  paid  by  his  employer's 
clients,  he  receives  no  salary  from  the  counselor  whom 
he  serves  ;  whereas,  in  old  times,  when  his  fees  were 
fixed  at  the  low  rate  just  mentioned,  the  clerk  could  not 
live  and  maintain  a  family  upon  them,  unless  his  master 
belonged  to  the  most  successful  grade  of  his  order. 

Horace  Walpole  tells  his  readers  that  Charles  Yorke 
"  was  reported  to  have  received  lOO.OOO  guineas  in  fees;" 
but  his  fee-book  shows  that  his  professional  rise  was  by 
no  means  so  rapid  as  those  who  knew  him  in  his  sun- 
niest days  generally  supposed.  The  story  of  his  growing 
fortune  is  indicated  in  the  following  statement  of  suc- 
cessive incomes: — 1st  year  of  practice  at  the  bar,  £\2\\ 
2nd,  i^20i  ;  3rd  and  4th,  between  i5"300  and  £a,oo  per 
annum  ;  5th,  i^/oo  ;  6th,  ^800;  7th,^"i,ooo;  9th,  ^1,600 ,■ 
10th,  ^2,500.  While  Solicitor-General  he  made  ^^3,400 
in  1757;  and  in  the  following  year  he  earned  ^^5,000. 
His  receipts  during  the  last  year  of  his  tenure  of  the 
Attorney-Generalship  amounted  to  £'J.122.  The  reader 
should  observe  that  as  Attorney-General  he  made  but 
little  more  than  Coke  had  realized  in  the  same  office, — a 
fact  serving  to  show  how  much  better  paid  were  Crow  n 
lawyers  in  times  when  they  held  office  like  judges  during 
the  sovereign's  pleasure,  than  in  these  later  days  when 
tliey  retire  from  place  together  with  their  political  parties. 

The  difference  between  the  incomes  of  Scotch  ad- 
vocates and    English  barristers  was    far    greater  in-  the 


234  PLEASANTRIES    OF     ENGLISH 

eip;hteenth  century  than  at  the  present  time,  although  in 
our  own  day  tlie  receipts  of  several  second-rate  hiwycrs 
of  the  Temple  and  Lincohi's  Inn  far  surpass  the  revenues 
of  the  most  successful  advocates  of  the  Edinburgh 
f.iculty.  A  hundred  and  thirty  years  since  a  Scotch 
bar'ister  who  earned  ^500  per  annum  by  his  profession 
was  esteemed  notably  successful. 

Just  as  Charles  Yorke's  fee-book  shows  us  the  pecu- 
niary position  of  an  eminent  English  barrister  in  the 
middle  of  the  last  century,  John  Scott's  list  of  receipts 
displays  the  prosperity  of  a  very  fortunate  Crown  lawyer 
in  the  next  generation.  Without  imputing  motives  the 
present  writer  may  venture  to  say  that  Lord  Eldon's 
assertions  with  regard  to  his  earnings  at  the  bar,  and 
his  judicial  incomes,  were  not  in  strict  accordance  with 
the  evidence  of  his  private  accounts.  He  used  to  say 
that  his  first  year's  earnings  in  his  profession  amounted 
to  half-a-guinea,  but  there  is  conclusive  proof  that  he 
had  a  considerable  quantity  of  lucrative  business  in 
the  same  year.  "  When  I  was  called  to  the  bar,"  it  was 
his  humor  to  say,  "  Bessie  and  I  thought  all  our 
troubles  were  over,  business  was  to  pour  in,  and  we  were 
to  be  rich  almost  immediately.  So  I  made  a  bargain 
with  her  that  during  the  following  year  all  the  money  I 
should  receive  in  the  first  eleven  months  should  be  mine, 
and  whatever  I  should  get  in  the  twelfth  month  should 
be  hers.  That  was  our  agreement,  and  how  do  you 
think  it  turned  out?  In  the  twelfth  month  I  received 
half-a-guinea — eighteenpence  went  for  charity,  and  Bessy 
got  nine  shillings.  In  the  other  eleven  months  I  got 
one  shilling."  John  Scott,  'oe  it  remembered,  was  called 
to  the  bar  on  February  9,  1776,  and  on  October  2,  of 
tlie  same  year,  William  Scott  wrote  to  his  brother 
Henry — "  My  brother  Jack  seems  highly  pleased  with 
his  circuit  business.       I  hope  it  is  only  the  beginning  of 


f 


COURTS    AND     LAWYERS.  235 

future  triumphs.  All  appearances  speak  strongly  in 
his  favor."  There  is  no  need  to  call  evidence  to  show 
that  Eldon's  success  was  more  than  respectable  from  the 
outset  of  his  career,  and  that  he  had  not  been  called 
many  years  before  he  was  in  the  foremost  rank  of  his 
profession.  His  fee-book  gives  the  following  account  of 
his  receipts  in  thirteen  successive  years  : — 1706,  ^^^6,833 
js  ;  1787,  i;;, 600  7^.  ;  1788,  i^8,4i9  14^.;  1789,  ^^9,559 
10^-.;  1790,  ^^9,684  I5jr.  ;  1791,  ^,'"10.213  13^-.  6d.\  1792, 
;{;9,o8o  9J.  ;  1793.^10,330  1^.4^'.;  1794,^11,592;  1795, 
;^ii,i49  ^is.^d.;  1796,^12,140  15^.8^/.;  1797,^10,861 
5^-.  8(/.  ;  1798,  ;{;■  10,557  17^-.  During  the  last  six  of  the 
above-mentioned  years  he  was  Attorney-General,  and 
during  the  preceeding  four  years  Solicitor-General. 

Although  General  Retainers  are  much  less  general 
than  formerly,  they  are  by  no  means  obsolete.  Noble- 
men could  be  mentioned  who  at  the  present  time  engage 
couiisel  with  periodical  payments,  special  fees  of  course 
being  also  paid  for  each  professional  service.  But  the 
custom  is  dying  out,  and  it  is  probable  that  after  the  lapse 
of  another  hundred  years  it  will  not  survive  save  among 
the  usages  of  ancient  corporations.  Notice  has  already 
been  taken  of  Murray's  conduct  when  he  returned  nine 
hundred  and  ninety-five  out  of  a  thousand  guineas  to  the 
Duchess  of  Alarlborough,  informing  her  that  the  pro- 
fessional fee  with  a  general  retainer  was  neither  more 
nor  less  than  five  guineas.  The  annual  salary  of  a 
Queen's  counsel  in  past  times  was  in  fact  a  fee  with  a 
general  retainer;  but  this  periodic  payment  is  no  longer 
made  to  wearers  of  silk. 

In  his  learned  work  on  "  The  Judges  of  England,"  Mr. 
Foss  observes  :  "  The  custom  of  retaining  counsel  in  fee 
lingered  in  form,  at  least  in  one  ducal  establishment. 
By  a  formal  deed-poll  between  the  proud  duke  of  Somer- 
set   and    Sir  Thomas    Parker,  dated  July   19,  1707,  the 


22,6  PLEASANTRIES     OF    ENGLISH 

duke  retains  him  as  his  '  standini^  counscll  in  ffec,'  and 
gives  and  allows  him  '  the  yearly  ffee  of  four  markes,  to 
be  paid  by  my  solicitor'  at  Michaehnas,  '  to  continue 
during  my  will  and  pleasure. '  "  Doubtless  Mr.  Foss  is 
aware  that  this  custom  still  "lingers  in  form  ;"  but  the 
tone  of  his  words  justifies  the  opinion  that  he  under 
rates  the  frequency  with  which  general  retainers  are 
still  given.  The  "standing  counsel  "  of  civic  and  com- 
mercial companies  are  counsel  with  general  retainers, 
and  usually  their  general  retainers  have  fees  attached  to 
them. 

The  payments  of  English  barristers  have  varied  much 
more  than  the  remunerations  of  English  pliysicians. 
Whereas  medical  practitioners  in  every  age  have  received 
a  certain  definite  sum  for  each  consultation,  and  have 
been  forbidden  by  etiquette  to  charge  more  or  less  than 
the  fixed  rate,  lawyers  have  been  allowed  much  freedom 
in  estimating  the  worth  of  their  labor.  This  difference 
between  the  usages  of  the  two  professions  is  mainly  due 
to  the  fact,  that  the  amount  of  time  and  mental  effort 
demanded  by  patients  at  each  visit  or  consultation  is  very 
nearly  the  same  in  all  cases,  whereas  the  requirements  of 
clients  are  much  more  various.  To  get  up  the  facts  of  a 
law-case  may  be  the  work  of  minutes,  or  hours,  or  days, 
or  even  weeks;  to  observe  the  symptoms  of  a  patient, 
and  to  write  a  prescription,  can  be  always  accomplished 
within  the  limits  of  a  short  morning  call.  In  all  times, 
however,  the  legal  profession  has  adopted  certain  scales 
of  payment — that  fixed  the  miniinniii  of  remuneration, 
but  left  the  advocate  free  to  get  more,  as  circumstances 
might  encourage  him  to  raise  his  demands.  Of  the  many 
good  stories,  told  of  artifices  by  which  barristers  have 
delicately  intimated  their  desire  for  higher  payment, 
none  is  better  than  an  anecdote  recorded  of  Sergeant 
Hill.     A  troublesome  case  being  laid   before   this  most 


COURTS    AND     LAWYERS.  237 

erudite  of  George  III.'s  sergeants,  he  returned  it  with  a 
brief  note,  that  he  "  saw  more  difficulty  in  the  case  than, 
under  all  the  circumstances,  he  could  well  solve."  As 
the  fee  marked  upon  the  case  was  only  a  guinea,  the 
attorney  readily  inferred  that  its  smallness  was  one  of  the 
circumstances  which  occasioned  the  counsel's  difficulty. 
The  case,  therefore,  was  returned,  with  a  fee  of  two 
guineas.  Still  dissatisfied,  Sergeant  Hill  wrote  that  "  he 
saw  no  reason  to  change  his  opinion." 

By  the  etiquette  of  the  bar  no  barrister  is  permitted 
to  take  a  brief  on  any  circuit,  save  that  on  which  he 
habitually  practices,  unless  he  has  received  a  special  re- 
tainer; and  no  wearer  of  silk  can  be  specially  retained 
with  a  less  fee  than  three  hundred  guineas.  Erskine's 
first  special  retainer  was  in  the  Dean  of  St.  Asaph's  case, 
his  first  speech  in  which  memorable  cause  was  delivered 
when  he  had  been  called  to  the  bar  but  little  more  than 
five  years.  From  that  time  till  his  elevation  to  the 
bench,  he  received  on  an  average  twelve  special  retainers 
a  year,  by  which  at  the  minimum  of  payment  he  made 
i^3,6oo  per  annum.  Besides  being  lucrative  and  honor- 
able, this  special  employment  greatly  augmented  his  prac- 
tice in  Westminister  Hall,  as  it  brought  him  in  personal 
contact  with  attorneys' in  every  part  of  the  country,  and 
heightened  his  popularity  among  all  classes  of  his  fellow- 
countrymen.  In  1786  he  entirely  withdrew  from  ordi- 
nary circuit  practice,  and  confined  his  exertions  in 
provincial  courts  to  the  causes  for  which  he  was  specially 
retained.  No  advocate  since  his  time  has  received  an 
equal  number  of  special  retainers;  and  if  he  did  not 
originate   the   custom    of  special   retainers,'   he  was  the 

'  Lord  Campbell  observed  :  "  Some  say  that  special  retainers  began  with 
Erskine  ;  but  I  doubt  the  fact."  It  is  strange  that  there  should  be  uncer- 
tainty as  to  the  time  when  special  retainers — unquestionably  a  comparatively 
recent  innovation  in  legal  practice — came  into  vogue. 


2,38  PLEASANTRIES     OF     ENGLISH 

f.rst  English  barrister  who  ventured  to  reject  all  other 
briefs. 

There  is  no  need  to  recapitulate  all  the  circumstances 
of  Erskine's  rapid  rise  in  his  profession — a  rise  due  to 
his  effective  brilliance  and  fervor  in  political  trials;  but 
this  chapter  on  lawyers'  fees  would  be  culpably  incom- 
plete, if  it  failed  to  notice  some  of  its  pecuniary  con- 
sequences. In  the  eight  month  after  his  call  to  the  bar 
he  thanked  Admiral  Keppel  for  a  splendid  fee  of  one 
thousand  pounds.  A  few  years  later  a  legal  gossip  wrote: 
"  Everybody  says  that  Erskine  will  be  Solicitor-General, 
and  if  he  is,  and  indeed  whether  he  is  or  not,  he  will  have 
had  the  most  rapid  rise  that  has  been  known  at  the  bar. 
It  is  four  years  and  a  half  since  he  was  called,  and  in  that 
time  he  has  cleared  ;^8,000  or  ^^9,000,  besides  paying  his 
debts — got  a  silk  gown,  and  business  of  at  least  ;^3,000a 
year — a  seat  in  Parliament — and,  over  and  above,  has 
made  his  brother  Lord  Advocate." 

Merely  to  mention  large  fees  without  specifying  the 
work  by  which  they  were  earned  would  mislead  the 
reader.  During  the  railway  mania  of  1845,  ^^''^  ^^^^ 
leaders  of  the  parliamentary  bar  received  prodigious  fees  : 
and  in  some  cases  the  sums  were  paid  for  very  little  ex- 
ertion. Frequently  it  happened  that  a  lawyer  took  heavy 
fees  in  causes,  at  no  stage  of  which  he  either  made  a 
speech  or  read  a  paper  in  the  service  of  his  too  liberal 
employers.  During  that  period  of  mad  speculation  the 
committee-rooms  of  the  two  Houses  were  an  El  Dorado 
to  certain  favored  lawyers,  who  were  alternately  paid  for 
speech  and  silence  with  reckless  profusion.  But  the  time 
was  so  exceptional,  that  the  fees  received  and  the  fortunes 
made  in  it  by  a  score  of  lucky  advocates  and  solicitors 
can  not  be  fairly  cited  as  facts  illustrating  the  social  con- 
dition of  legal  practitioners.  As  a  general  rule,  it  may 
be  stated  that  large  fortunes  are  not  made  at  the  bar  by 


COURTS    AND     LAWYERS.  239 

large  fees.  Our  richest  lawyers  have  made  the  bulk  of 
their  wealth  by  accumulating  sufficient  but  not  exor- 
bitant payments.  In  most  cases  the  large  fee  has  not  been 
a  very  liberal  remuneration  for  the  work  done.  Edward 
Law's  retainer  for  the  defense  of  Warren  Hastings 
brought  with  it  ^500— a  sum  which  caused  our  grand- 
fathers to  raise  their  hands  in  astonishment  at  the  nabob's 
munificence  ;  but  the  sum  was  in  reality  the  reverse  of 
liberal.  In  all,  Warren  Hastings  paid  his  leading  advo- 
cate considerably  less  than  four  thousand  pounds  ;  and  if 
Law  had  not  contrived  to  win  the  respect  of  solicitors  by 
his  management  of  the  defense,  the  case  could  not  be 
said  to  have  paid  him  for  his  trouble.  So  also  the  emi- 
nent advocate,  who  in  the  great  case  of  Small  ik  Attwood 
received  a  fee  of  ^^"6,000,  was  actually  underpaid.  When 
he  made  up  the  account  of  the  special  outlay  necessi- 
tated by  that  cause,  and  the  value  of  the  business 
which  the  burdensome  case  compelled  him  to  decline, 
he  had  small  reason  to  congratulate  himself  on  his 
remuneration. 

A  statement  of  the  incomes  made  by  chamber-barris- 
ters, and  of  the  sums  realized  by  counsel  in  departments 
of  the  profession  that  do  not  invite  the  attention  of  the 
general  public,  would  astonish  those  uninformed  persons 
who  estimate  the  success  of  a  barrister  by  the  frequency 
with  which  his  name  appears  in  the  newspaper  reports 
of  trials  and  suits.  The  talkers  of  the  bar  enjoy  xnox^  eclat 
than  the  barristers  who  confine  themselves  to  chamber 
practice,  and  their  labors  lead  to  the  honors  of  the 
bench  ;  but  a  young  lawyer,  bent  only  on  the  acquisition 
of  wealth,  is  more  likely  to  achieve  his  ambition  by  con- 
veyancing or  arbitration-business  than  by  court-work. 
Kenyon  was  never  a  popular  or  successful  advocate,  but 
he  made  ;^3,ooo  a  year  by  answering  cases.  Charles 
Abbott  at  no  time  of  his  life  could  speak  better  than  a 


240  PLEASANTRIES     OF    ENGLISH 

vcstr\-man  of  average  ability  ;  but  by  drawing  informa- 
tions and  indictments,  by  writing  opinions  on  cases,  he 
made  the  greater  part  of  the  eight  thousand  pounds  which 
he  returned  as  the  amount  of  his  professional  receipts  in 
1807.  In  our  own  time,  when  that  popular  common-law 
advocate,  Mr.  Edwin  James,  was  omnipotent  with  juries, 
his  income  never  equaled  the  income  of  certain  chamber- 
practitioners  whose  names  are  utterly  unknown  to  the 
general  body  of  English  society. 


CHAPTER    XXXI. 

TO  a  young  student  making  his  first  researches  be- 
neath the  surface  of  English  history,  few  facts  are 
more  painful  and  perplexing  than  the  judicial  corruption 
which  prevailed  in  every  period  of  our  country's  growth 
until  quite  recent  times — darkening  the  brightest  pages 
of  our  annals,  and  disfiguring  some  of  the  greatest  chief- 
tains of  our  race. 

Where  he  narrates  the  fall  and  punishment  of  De 
\Ve\'land,  towards  the  close  of  the  thirteenth  century, 
Speed  observes  :  "  While  the  Jews  by  their  cruel  usuries 
had  in  one  way  eaten  up  the  people,  the  justiciars,  like 
another  kind  of  Jews,  had  ruined  them  with  delay  in 
their  suits,  and  enriched  themselves  with  wicked  convic- 
tions." Of  judicial  corruption  in  the  reigns  of  Edward  I. 
and  Edward  II.  a  vivid  picture  is  given  in  a  political 
ballad,  composed  in  the  time  of  one  or  the  other  of  those 
monarchs.  Of  this  poem  Mr.  Wright,  in  his  "  Political 
Songs,"  gives  a  free  version,  a  part  of  which  runs  thus  : — - 

"Judges  there  are  whom  gifts  and  favorites  control, 
Content  to  serve  the  devil  alone  and  take  from  him  a  toll ; 
If  nature's  law  forbids  the  judge  from  selling  his  decree. 
How  dread  to  those  who  hnger  bribes  the  punishment  shall  be. 


COURTS     AXD     LAWYERS.  241 

"Such  judges  have  accomplices  whom  frequently  they  send 
To  get  at  those  who  claim  some  land,  ami  whisper  as  a  friend, 
'  'Tis  I  can  help  you  with  the  judge,  if  you  would  wish  to  plead, 
Give  me  but  half,  I'll  undertake  before  him  you'll  succeed.' 

"The  clerks  who  sit  beneath  the  judge  are  open-mouthed  as  he. 
As  if  they  were  half-famished  and  gaping  for  a  fee  ; 
Of  those  who  give  no  money  they  soon  pronounce  the  state. 
However  early  they  attend,  they  shall  have  long  to  wM. 

"If  comes  some  noble  lady,  in  beauty  and  in  pride, 
With  golden  horns  upon  her  head,  her  suit  he'll  soon  decide  ; 
But  she  who  has  no  charms,  nor  friends,  and  is  for  gifts  too  poor, 
Her  business  all  neglected,  she's  weeping  shown  the  door. 

"  But  worse  than  all,  within  the  court  we  some  relators  meet. 
Who  take  from  either  side  at  once,  and  both  their  clients  cheat 
The  ushers,  too,  to  poor  men  say,  '  You  labor  here  In  vain, 
Unless  you  tip  us  all  around,  you  may  go  back  again.' 

"  The  sheriff's  hard  upon  the  pour  who  can  not  pay  for  rest. 
Drags  them  about  to  every  town,  on  all  assizes  press'd  ; 
Compell'd  to  take  the  oath  prescrib'd  without  objection  made. 
For  if  they  murmur  and  can't  pay,  upon  their  backs  they're  laid. 

"  They  enter  any  private  house,  or  abbey  that  they  choose. 
Where  meat  and  drink  and  all  things  else  are  given  as  their  dues ; 
And  after  dinner  jewels,  too,  or  this  were  all  in  vain. 
Bedels  and  garcons  must  receive,  and  all  that  form  the  train. 

"  And  next  must  gallant  robes  be  sent  as  presents  to  their  wives. 
Or  from  the  manor  of  the  host  some  one  his  cattle  drives  ; 
While  he,  poor  man,  is  sent  to  jail  upon  some  false  pretense, 
And  pays  at  last  a  double  cost,  ere  he  gets  freed  from  thence. 

"  I  can't  but  laugh  to  see  their  clerks,  whom  once  I  knew  in  need. 
When  to  obtain  a  bailiwick  they  may  at  last  succeed  ; 
With  pride  in  gait  and  countenance  and  with  their  necks  erect. 
They  lands  and  houses  quickly  buy  and  pleasant  rents  collect. 

"  Grown  rich  they  soon  the  poor  despise,  and  new  made  laws  display. 
Oppress  their  neighbors  and  become  the  wise  men  of  their  day  ; 
Unsparing  of  the  least  offense,  when  they  can  have  their  will. 
The  hapless  country  all  around  with  discontent  they  fill." 

In  the  fourteenth  century  judicial  corruption  was  i\o 
general  and  flagrant,  that  cries  came  from  every  quarter 
for  the  punishment  of  offenders.  The  Knights  Hospi- 
talers' Survey,  made  in  the  year  1338,  gives  us  revela- 
tions that  confound  the  indiscreet  admirers  of  feudal 
manners.  From  that  source  of  information  it  appears 
that  regular  stipends  were  paid  to  persons  "  tarn  in  curia 
domini   regis,  quam  justiciariis,  clericis,  officiariis  et  aliis 

ministris.  in  diversis  curiis  suis,  acetiam  aliis  familiaribus 
1.--16 


242  PLEASANTRIES    OF    ENGLISH 

magnatum,  tarn  pro  terris  tenementis  redditibus  et  liber- 
tatibus  Hospitalis,  quam  Templarioruin,  et  maxime  pro 
terris  Tciiiplariorum  manutenendis."  Of  pensions  to  the 
amount  of  /'440  mentioned  in  the  account,  £60  were 
paid  to  judc^es,  clerks,  and  minor  officers  of  courts. 
Robert  de  Sadington,  the  Chief  Baron,  received  40  marks 
annually;  twice  a  year  the  Knights  Hospitalers  pre- 
sented caps  to  one  hundred  and  forty  officers  of  the 
Exchequer;  and  they  expended  200  marks /rr  aniiU7ii  on 
gifts  that  were  distributed  in  law  courts,  "■  pj'o  favore 
habendo,  et  pro  placilis  habendis,  et  expensis  parliament- 
orum."  In  that  age,  and  for  centuries  later,  it  was  cus- 
tomary for  wealthy  men  and  great  corporations  to  make 
valuable  presents  to  the  judges  and  chief  servants  of  the 
king's  courts;  but  it  was  always  presumed  that  the  offer- 
ings were  simple  expressions  of  respect — not  tribute 
rendered,  "  pro  favore  habendo." 

Bent  on  purifying  the  moral  atmosphere  of  his  courts, 
Edward  III.  raised  the  salaries  of  his  judges,  and  im- 
posed upon  them  such  oaths  that  none  of  their  order 
could  pervert  justice,  or  even  encourage  venal  {practices, 
without  breaking  his  solemn  vow'  to  the  kini^'s  majesty. 

'  A  portion  of  the  oath  prescribed  for  judges  in  the  "  Ordinance  for  Jus- 
tices," 20  Edward  III.,  will  show  the  reader  the  evils  whicli  called  for  cor- 
rection, and  the  care  taken  to  effect  their  cure.  "  Ve  shall  swear,"  ran  tlie 
injunction  to  which  each  judge  was  required  to  vow  obedience.  "  that  we'l 
and  lawfully  ye  shall  serve  our  lord  the  king  and  his  people  in  the  office  of 
justice  ;  .  .  .  .  and  that  ye  take  not  by  yourself  or  by  other,  privily  or 
apertly,  gift  nor  revyfard  of  gold  nor  silver,  nor  of  any  other  thing  whicli  may 
turn  to  your  profit,  unless  it  be  meat  or  drink,  and  that  of  small  value,  of 
any  >nan  that  shall  have  plea  or  process  before  you,  as  long  as  the  same  process 
shall  be  so  hanging,  nor  after  for  the  same  cause  :  and  that  ye  shall  take  hO 
fet  as  long  as  ye  shail  be  justice,  nor  robes  of  anv  man,  great  or  small,  but  <  f 
the  king  himself:  and  tliat  \e  give  none  advice  or  counsel  to  no  man,  great 
ci  small,  in  any  case  where  the  king  is  party;  &c.,  &c.,  &c.,"  The  clau  e 
ftrbidding  the  judge  to  receive  gifts  of  actual  suitors  was  a  positive  recogni- 
tion of  his  right  to  "customary  gifts"  rendered  by  persons  who  htd  no  prij- 
cesses  hanging  before  him.  It  should  moreover  be  observed  that  in  the  pas- 
sage, "  ye  shall  take  no  fee  as  long  as  ye  shall  be  jus'ice,  nor  robes  of  any 
'nan,"  tlie  word  "  fee  "  signifies  "  salary,"  and  not  a  single  payment  or  gratuity, 
'.'he  judge  was  forbidden  to  receive  from  any  man  a  ti.xed   stipend  (by   the 


COURTS    AND    LAWYERS.  243 

From  the  amounts  of  the  royal  fees  or  stipends  paid  to 
Edward  III.'s  judges,  it  may  be  vaguely  estimated  how 
far  they  were  dependent  on  gifts  and  court  fees  for  the 
means  of  Hving  with  appropriate  state.  John  Knyvet, 
Chief  Justice  of  the  King's  Bench,  has  ^40  and  100  marks 
per  annum.  The  annual  fee  of  Tiiomas  de  Ingleby,  the 
solitary  puisne  judge  of  the  Kir.g's  Bench  at  that  time, 
was  at  first  40  narks  ;  but  he  obtained  an  additional  ^^"40 
when  the  "fees"  were  raised,  and  he  received  moreover 
;i^20  a  year  as  a  judge  of  assize.  The  Chief  of  the  Com- 
mon Pleas,  Robert  de  Thorp,  received  £Afy  per  annum, 
payable  during  his  tenure  of  office,  and  another  annual 
sum  of  ;^40  payable  during  his  life.  John  de  Mowbray, 
William  de  Wychingham,  and  William  de  Fyncheden, 
the  other  judges  of  Common  Pleas,  received  40  marks 
each  as  official  salary,  and  ^20  per  annum  for  their 
services  at  assizes.  Mowbray's  stipend  was  subsequently 
increased  to  40  marks,  while  Wychingham  and  Fynche- 
den received  an  additional  ^^"40  per  annum.  To  the 
Chief  Baron  and  the  two  other  Barons  of  the  Exchequer 
annual  fees  of  40  marks  each  were  paid;  the  Chief 
Baron  receiving  ;^20  per  annum  as  Justice  of  Assize, 
and  one  of  the  puisne  Barons,  Almaric  de  Shirland,  get- 
ting an  additional  40  marks  for  certain  special  services. 
The  "  Issue  Roll  of  44  Edward  III.,  1370,"  also  shows 
that  certain  sergeants-at-law  acted  as  Justices  of  Assize, 
receiving  for  their  service  ^20  per  annum. 

Throughout  his  reign  Edward  III.  strenuously  exerted 

acceptance  of  which  lie  would  become  the  donor's  servant),  or  robes  (the 
assumption  of  which  would  be  open  declaration  of  service)  ;  but  he  was  at 
liberty  to  accept  the  offerings  which  the  public  were  wont  to  make  to  men 
of  his  condition,  as  well  as  the  sums  (or  "  fees,"  as  they  would  be  termed  at 
the  present  day)  due  on  the  different  processes  of  his  court.  'I'hat  the  word 
"  fee"  is  thus  used  in  the  mdinance  may  be  seen  from  the  words  "for  this 
cau-e  we  have  increased  the  fees  (les  feez)  of  the  same  justices,  in  such  man- 
ner as  it  ought  reasonably  to  suffice  them,"  by  whicii  language  attention  is 
drawn  to  the  increase  of  the  judicial  salaries. 


244  PLEASANTRIES    OF     ENGLISH 

himself  to  purge  his  law  courts  of  abuses,  and  to  secure 
his  subjects  from  evils  wrought  by  judicial  dishonesty;  and 
though  there  is  reason  to  think  that  he  prosecuted  his 
reforms,  and  punished  offending  judges  with  more  impul- 
siveness than  consistency — with  petulance  rather  than 
firmness' — his  action  must  have  produced  many  beneficial 
results.  Butit  does  not  seem  to  have  occurred  to  him 
that  the  system  adopted  by  his  predecessors,  and  en- 
couraged by  the  usages  of  his  own  time,  was  the  real 
source  of  the  mischief,  and  that  so  long  as  judges  received 
the  greater  part  of  thr-ir  remuneration  from  suitors'  fees 
and  the  donations  of  the  public,  enactments  and  procla- 
mations would  be  comparatively  powerless  to  preserve  the 
streams  of  justice  from  pollution.  The  fee-system 
poisoned  the  morality  of  the  law-courts.  From  the 
highest  judge  to  the  lowest  usher,  every  person  connected 
with  a  court  of  justice  was  educated  to  receive  small  sums 
of  money  for  trifling  services,  to  be  always  looking  out 
for  paltry  dues  or  gratuities,  to  multiply  occasions  for 
demanding,  and  reasons  for  pocketing,  petty  coins,  t  j 
invent  devices  for  legitimate  peculation.  In  time  the 
system  produced  such  complications  of  custom,  right, 
privilege,  claim,  that  no  one  could  say  definitely  how 
much  a  suitor  was  actually  bound  to  pay  at  each  stage  of 
a  suit.  The  fees  had  an  equally  bad  influence  on  the 
public.  Trained  to  approach  the  king's  judi^es  witli 
costly  presents,  to  receive  them  on  their  visits  with  lavish 
hospitality,  to  send  them  ofl'erings  at  the  opening  of  each 
year,  the  rich  and  the  poor  learnt  to  look  on  judicial  de- 
cisions as  things  that  were  bought  and  sold.  In  many 
cases  this   impression  was  not  erroneous.       Judges  were 

'  Mr.  Foss  observes  :  "  In  1350,  William  de  Thorpe,  the  Chief  Justice  of 
the  King's  Bench,  was  convicted  on  his  own  confes^ion  of  receiving  briljes 
to  stay  justice  ;  bi't  though  his  property  was  forfeited  to  the  Crown  on  his 
condetTination,  the  king  appears  to  have  relented,  and  to  have  made  him 
second  Baron  of  the  Exchequer  in  May,  1352,  unless  I  am  mistaken  in  sup- 
posing the  latter  to  have  been  the  same  person." 


I 


COURTS    AND     LAWYERS.  245 

forbidden  to  accept  gifts  from  actual  suitors  or  to  take 
payment  _/(?r  judgment  after  their  delivery  ;  but  on  the 
judgment-seat  they  were  too  often  influenced  by  recol- 
lections of  the  conduct  of  suitors  who  had  been  rpunificent 
before  the  comm.encement  of  proceedings,  and  most 
probably  would  be  equally  munificent  six  months  after 
delivery  of  a  judgment  favorable  to  their  claims. 
Humorous  anecdotes  heightened  the  significance  of 
patent  facts.  Throughout  a  shire  it  would  be  told  how 
this  suitor  won  a  judgment  by  a  sumptuous  feast  ;  how 
that  suitor  bought  the  justice's  favor  with  a  cask  of  rare 
wine,  a  horse  of  excellent  breed,  a  hound  of  superior 
sagacity. 

In  the  fifteenth  century  the  judge  whose  probity  did 
not  succumb  to  an  excellent  dinner  was  deemed  a  miracle 
of  virtue.  "A  lady,"  writes  Fuller  of  Chief  Justice 
Markham,  who  was  dismissed  from  his  place  in  1470, 
"would  traverse  a  suit  of  law  against  the  will  »of  her 
husband,  who  was  contented  to  buy  his  quiet  by  giving 
her  her  will  therein,  though  otherwise  persuaded  in  his 
judgment  the  cause  would  go  against  her.  This  lady, 
dwelling  in  the  shire  town,  invited  the  judge  to  dinner, 
and  (though  thrifty  enough  herself)  treated  him  with 
sumptuous  entertainment.  Dinner  being  done,  and  the 
cause  being  called,  the  judge  gave  it  against  her.  And 
when,  in  passion,  she  vowed  never  to  in\"ite  the  judge 
again,  'Nay,  wife,'  said  he,  'vow  never  to  invite  3.  Just 
I'udge  any  more.'  "  It  may  be  safely  affirmed  that  no 
English  lady  of  our  time  ever  tried  to  bribe  Sir  Alexan- 
der Cockburn  or  Sir  Frederick  Pollock  with  a  dinner  a /a 
Kusse. 

By  his  eulogy  of  Chief  Justice  Dyer,  who  died  March 
24,  1852,  Whetstone  gives  proof  that  in  Elizabethan 
England  purity  was  the  exception  rather  than  the  rule 
with  judges  : — 


246  PLEASANTRIES    OF     ENGLISH 

"  And  when  lie  spake  he  was  in  spccche  reposde  ; 

Mis  eyes  did  searcli  the  simple  suitor's  harte  ; 
To  put  by  bribes  his  hands  were  ever  closde, 

His  processe  juste,  he  tooke  the  poore  man's  parte, 

He  ruld  by  law  and  listened  not  'o  arte, 
These  foes  to  truthe — loove,  hate,  and  private  gain, 
Which  most  corrupt,  his  conscience  could  not  staine." 

There  is  no  reason  to  suppose  tliat  the  custom  of  giving 
and  receiving  presents  was  more  general  or  extravagant 
in  the  time  of  Elizabeth  than  in  previous  ages ;  but  the 
fuller  records  of  her  splendid  reign  give  greater  promi- 
nence to  the  usage  than  it  obtained  in  the  chronicles  of 
any  earlier  period  of  English  history.  On  each  New 
Year's  Day  her  courtiers  gave  her  costly  presents — 
jewels,  ornaments  of  gold  or  silver  workmanship,  hun- 
dreds of  ounces  of  silver-gilt  plate,  tapestry,  laces,  satin 
dresses,  embroidered  petticoats.  Not  only  did  she  accept 
such  costly  presents  from  men  of  rank  and  wealth,  but 
she  graciously  received  the  donations  of  tradesmen  and 
menials.  Francis  Bacon  made  her  majesty  "a  poor 
oblation  of  a  garment;"  Charles  Sinith,  the  dustman, 
threw  upon  the  pile  of  treasures  "  two  bottes  of  cambric." 
The  fashion  thus  countenanced  by  the  queen  was  followed 
in  all  ranks  of  society  ;  all  men,  from  high  to  low,  re- 
ceiving presents,  as  expressions  of  affection  when  they 
came  from  their  equals,  as  declarations  of  restpect  when 
they  came  from  their  social  inferiors.  Each  of  her  great 
officers  of  state  drew  a  handsome  revenue  from  such 
yearly  offerings.  But  though  the  burdens  and  abuses  of 
this  system  were  excessive  under  Elizabeth,  they  in- 
creased in  enormity  and  number  during  the  reigns  of  the 
Stuarts. 

That  the  salaries  of  the  Elizabethan  judges  were  small 
in  comparison  with  the  sums  which  they  received  in 
presents  and  fees  may  be  seen  from  the  following  Table 
of  stipends  and  allowances  annually  paid,  towards  the 
close  of  the  sixteenth  century:  — 


COURTS    AND     LAJVVERS.  247 

£.     f.  d. 

**  The  Lord  Cheefe  Justice  of  England  : — 

Fee,  Reward,  and  Robes 2oS     6  S 

Wyne,  2  tunnep  at  ;i^5  tlie  tunnc lo     o  o 

Allowance  for  being  Justice  of  Assize 20     O  o 

"  The  Lord  Cheefe  Justice  of  the    Common  ['leas  : — 

Fee,  Reward,  and  Robes 141    13  4 

Wyne,  two  tunnes 800 

Allowance  as  Justice  of  Assize 20     o  O 

Fee    for    keeping    the   Assi/.e  in  tlie  Ai;;_;mcutatiou 

Court 12  10  8 

"  Each  of  the  three  Justices  iu  these  two  Coui  is  ;— 

Fee,  Reward,  and  Robes 1 28     6  8 

Allowance  as  Justice  of  Assize 20     O  O 

"  Tlie  Loid  Cheefe  Baron  of  the  Exchequer  : — 

Fee 100    o  c 

Lyvery 1217S 

Allowance  as  Justice  of  A«ize 20     o  o 

"  Eacli  of  the  three  Barons  : — 

Fee 46   12  4 

Lyvery  a  peece 12174 

Allowance  as  Justice  of  Assize 20     o  o" 

Prior  to  and  in  the  earlier  part  of  Elizabeth's  reign, 
the  sheriffs  had  been  required  to  provide  diet  and 
lodging  forjudges  traveling  on  circuit,  each  sheriff  being 
responsible  (or  the  proper  entertainment  of  judges  \vithi:i 
the  limits  of  his  jurisdiction.  This  arrangement  was  very 
burdensome  upon  the  class  from  which  the  sheriffs  were 
elected,  as  the  official  host  had  not  only  to  furnish  suit- 
able lodging  and  cheer  for  the  justices  themselves,  but 
also  to  supply  the  wants  of  their  attendants  and  servants. 
Tlic  ostentatious  and  costly  hospitality  which  law  and 
[)ublic  opinion  thus  compelled  or  encouraged  them  to 
exercise  towards  circuiteers  of  all  ranks  had  seriously 
eniharrAssed  a  great  number  of  country  gentlemen  ;  and 
the  queen  was  assailed  with  entreaties  for  a  reform  that 
^'•^ould  free  a  sheriff  of  small  estate  from  the  necessity  of 
eirher  ruining  himself,  or  incurring  a  reputation  for 
stinginess.  In  consequence  of  these  urgent  representa- 
tiiMis,  an  order  of  council,  bearing  date  February  21, 
1574,  decided,  •' the  justices  shall  have  of  her  majesty 
several  sums  of  money  out  of  her  coffers  for  their  daily 


248  PLEASANTRIES     OF    ENGLISH 

diet."  Hence  rose  tlie  usa^e  of  "circuit  allowances." 
The  sheriffs,  however,  were  still  bound  to  attend  upon 
the  judijes,  and  make  suitable  provision  for  the  safe  con- 
duct of  the  legal  functionaries  from  assize  town  to  assi/e 
tovvn; — the  sheriff  of  each  county  being  required  to  fur- 
nish a  body-guard  for  the  protection  of  the  sovereign's 
representatives.  This  responsibility  lasted  till  the  other 
day,  when  an  innovation  (of  which  I^.Ir.  Arcedccknc,  oi 
Glevering  Mall,  .Suffolk,  was  the  most  notorious,  thougli 
not  the  first  champion),  substituted  guards  of  policemen, 
paid  by  county-rates,  for  bands  of  javelin-men  equij)ped 
and  rewarded  by  the  sheriffs.  In  some  counties  tiie 
javelin-men — remote  descendants  of  the  mail-clad  knights 
and  stalwart  men-at-arms  who  formerly  mustered  at  the 
summons  of  sheriffs — still  do  duty  with  long  wands  and 
fresh  rosettes ;  but  they  are  fast  giving  way  to  the 
wielders  of  short  staves. 

Among  the  bad  consequences  of  the  system  of 
gratuities  was  the  color  wliich  it  gave  to  idle  rumors 
and  malicious  slander  against  the  purity  of  upriglit 
judges. 

When  Sir  Thomas  More  fell,  charges  of  bribery  were 
preferred  against  him  before  the  Privy  Council.  A 
disappointed  suitor,  named  ParnelJ,  declared  that  the 
Chancellor  had  been  bribed  wiih  a  gilt-cup  to  decide  in 
favor  of  his  (Parnell's)  adversary.  Mistress  Vaughan, 
the  successful  suitor's  wife,  had  given  Sir  Thomas  the 
cup  with  her  own  hands.  The  f.i;Ien  Chancellor  ad- 
mitting that  "  he  had  received  the  cu!>  as  a  New  Year's 
Gift."  Lord  Wiltshire  cried  with  unseemly  cxultatio:;, 
*'  Lo !  did  I  not  tell  you,  my  lords,  that  )'<)U  would  find 
this  matter  true  ?"  It  seemed  that  More  had  pleaded 
guilty,  for  his  oath  did  not  permit  him  to  receive  a  New 
Year's  Gift  from  an  actual  suitor.  "  But,  my  lords," 
continued  the  accused  man,  with  one  of  his  characteristic 


COURTS    AND     LAV/ VERS.  249 

smiles,  "  hear  the  other  part  of  my  tale.  After  having 
drunk  to  her  of  wine,  with  which  my  butler  had  filled  the 
cup,  and  when  she  had  pledged  me,  I  restored  it  to  her, 
and  would  listen  to  no  refusal."  It  is  possible  that 
Mistress  Vaughan  did  not  act  with  corrupt  intention, 
but  merely  in  ignorance  of  the  rule  which  forbade  the 
Chancellor  to  accept  her  present.  As  much  can  not  be 
said  in  behalf  of  Mrs.  Croker,  who,  being  opposed  in  a 
suit  to  Lord  Arundel,  souglit  to  win  Sir  Thomas  More's 
favor  by  presenting  him  with  a  pair  of  gloves  contain- 
ing forty  angels.  With  a  courteous  smile  he  accepted 
the  gloves,  but  constrained  her  to  take  back  the  gold. 
The  gentleness  of  this  rebuff  is  charming;  but  the  story 
does  not  tell  more  in  favor  of  Sir  Thomas  than  to  the 
disgrace  of  the  lady  and  the  moral  tone  of  the  society  in 
which  she  lived. 

Readers  should  bear  in  mind  the  part  which  New 
Year's  Gifts  and  other  customary  gratuities  played  in 
the  trumpery  charges  against  Lord  Bacon.  Adopting 
an  old  method  of  calumny,  the  conspirators  against  his 
fair  fame  represented  that  the  gifts  made  to  him,  in  ac- 
cordance with  ancient  usage,  were  bribes.  For  instance, 
Reynel's  ring,  presented  on  New  Year's  Day,  was  so 
construed  by  the  accusers;  and  in  his  comment  upon  the 
charge.  Bacon,  who  had  inadvertently  accepted  the  gift 
during  the  progress  of  a  suit,  observes,  "  This  ring  was 
received  certainly  pendente  lite,  and  though  it  were  at 
New  Year's  tide,  yet  it  was  too  great  a  value  for  a  New 
Year's  Gift,  though,  as  I  take  it,  nothing  near  the  value 
mentioned  in  the  articles."  So  also  Trevor's  gift  was 
a  New  Year's  present,  of  which  Bacon  says,  "  I  confess 
and  declare  that  I  received  at  Y^qw  Year's  tide  an  hundred 
pounds  from  Sir  John  Trevor,  and  because  it  came  as  a 
New  Year's  Gift,  I  neglected  to  inquire  whether  the 
cause  was  ended  or  depending;    but   since    I   find   that 


250  PLEASANTRIES     OF    ENGLISH 

though  the  cause  was  then  dismissed  to  a  trial  at  law, 
yet  the  equity  is  reserved,  so  as  it  was  in  that  kind 
pendente  lite.''  Bacon  knew  that  this  explanation  would 
be  read  by  men  familiar  with  the  history  of  New  Year's 
Gifts,  and  all  the  circumstances  of  the  ancient  usage; 
and  it  is  needless  to  say  that  no  man  of  honor  thought 
the  less  highly  of  Bacon  at  the  time,  because  his  pure 
and  guiltless  acceptance  of  customary  presents  was  by 
ingenious  and  unscrupulous  adversaries  made  to  assume 
an  appearance  of  corrupt  compliance. 

How  far  the  Chancellors  of  the  sixteenth  and  seven- 
teenth centuries  depended  upon  customary  gratuities 
for  their  revenues  may  be  seen  from  facts  which  show 
the  degree  of  state  which  they  were  required  to  maintain, 
and  the  inadequacy  of  the  ancient  fees  for  the  main- 
tenance of  that  pomp.  When  Elizabeth  pressed  Hatton 
for  payment  of  the  sums  which  he  owed  her,  the  Chan- 
cellor lamented  his  inability  to  liquidate  her  just  claims, 
and  urged  in  excuse  that  the  ancient  fees  were  very 
inadequate  to  the  expenses  of  the  Chancellor's  office. 
But  though  Elizabethan  Chancellors  could  not  live  upon 
their  ancient  fees,  they  kept  up  palaces  in  town  and 
country,  fed  regiments  of  lackeys,  and  surpassed  the 
ancient  nobility  in  the  grandeur  of  their  equipages. 
Egerton  —  the  needy  and  illegitimate  son  of  a  rural 
knight,  a  lawyer  who  fought  up  from  the  ranks — not  only 
sustained  the  costly  dignities  of  office,  but  left  to  his 
descendants  a  landed  estate  worth  £^,ooo  per  annum. 
Bacon's  successor  in  the  "  marble  chair,"  Lord  Keeper 
Williams,  assured  Buckingham  that  in  Egerton's  time  the 
Chancellor's  lawful  income  was  less  than  three  thousand 
per  annum.  "  The  lawful  revenue  of  the  office  stands 
thus,"  wrote  Williams,  speaking  from  his  intimate  knowl- 
edge of  Ellesmere's  affairs,  "or  not  much  above  it  at 
any  time  :^In  fines  certain,  £i,ioo  per  annum.,  or  there- 


COURTS    AND    LAWYERS.  251 

abouts  ;  in  fines  casual,  ^1,250,  orthereabouts  ;  in  greater 
^vrits,  £,\\0\  for  impost  of  wine,  i^ioo— in  all,  ^2,790; 
and  these  are  all  the  true  means  of  that  great  office." 
It  is  probable  that  Williams  under-stated  the  revenue, 
but  it  is  certain  that  the  income,  apart  from  gratuities, 
was  insufficient. 

The  Chancellor  was  not  more  dependant  on  customary- 
gratuities  than  the  Chiefs  of  the  three  Common-Law 
courts.  At  Westminster  and  on  circuit,  whenever  he 
was  required  to  discharge  his  official  functions,  the  Eng- 
lish judge  extended  his  hand  for  the  contributions  of 
tb.e  well-disposed.  No  one  thought  of  blaming  judges 
for  their  readiness  to  take  customary  benevolences.  To 
t.ike  gifts  was  a  usage  of  the  profession,  and  had  its 
parallel  in  the  customs  of  every  calling  and  rank  of  life. 
The  clergy  took  dues  in  like  manner:  from  the  earliest 
days  of  feudal  life  the  territorial  lords  had  supplied  their 
wants  in  the  same  way  ;  among  merchants  and  yoeman, 
petty  traders  and  servants,  the  system  existed  in  full 
force.  These  presents  were  made  without  any  secrecy. 
The  aldermen  of  borough  towns  openly  voted  presents 
to  the  judges;  and  the  judges  received  their  offerings — 
not  as  benefactions,  but  as  legitimate  perquisites.  In 
1620 — ^just  a  year  before  Lord  Bacon's  fall — the  munici- 
pal council  of  Lym.e  Regis  left  it  to  the  "  maj'or's  dis- 
cretion "  to  decide  "  what  gratuity  he  will  give  to  the 
Lord  Chief  Baron  and  his  men  "  at  the  next  assizes.  The 
system,  it  is  needless  to  say,  had  disastrous  results.  Em- 
powering the  chief  judge  of  every  court  to  receive  pres- 
ents not  only  from  the  public,  but  from  subordinate 
judges,  inferior  officers,  and  the  bar;  and  moreover  em- 
powering each  place-holder  to  take  gratuities  from  pcr- 
s  )ns  officially  or  by  profession  concerned  in  the  business 
of  the  courts,  it  produced  a  complicated  machinery  for 
extortion.     By  presents  the  chief  justices  bought   their 


25  2  PLEASANTRIES     OF    ENGLISH 

places  from  the  crown  or  a  roj-al  favorite  ;  by  presents  the 
puisne  justices,  registrars,  counsel  bought  place  or  favor 
from  the  chief;  by  presents  the  attorneys,  sub-registrars, 
and  outside  public  sought  to  gain  their  ends  with  the 
humbler  place-holders.  The  meanest  ushers  of  West- 
minster Hall  took  coins  from  ragged  scriveners.  Hence 
every  place  was  actually  bought  and  sold,  the  sum  being 
in  most  cases  very  high.  Sir  James  Ley  offered  the  Duke 
of  Buckingham  i^  10,000  for  the  Attorney's  place.  At  the 
same  period  the  Solicitor-General's  office  was  sold  for 
^4,000.  Under  Charles  I.  matters  grew  still  worse  than 
they  had  been  under  his  father.  When  Sir  Charles  Caesar 
consulted  Laud  about  the  worth  of  the  vacant  Mastership 
of  the  Rolls,  the  archbishop  frankly  said,  "that  as  things 
then  stood,  the  place  was  not  likely  to  go  without  more 
money  than  he  thought  any  wise  man  would  give  for  it." 
Disregarding  this  intimation.  Sir  Charles  paid  the  king 
/^  1 5,000  for  the  place,  and  added  a  loan  of  i^2,ooo.  Sir 
Thomas  Richardson,  at  the  opening  of  the  reign,  gave 
£i'],OQO  for  the  Chiefship  of  the  Common  Pleas.  If 
judges  needed  gifts  before  the  days  when  vacant  seats 
were  put  up  to  auction,  of  course  they  stood  all  the 
more  in  need  of  them  when  they  bought  their  promotions 
with  such  large  sums.  It  is  not  wonderful  that  the 
wearers  of  ermine  repaid  themselves  by  venal  practices. 
The  sale  of  judicial  offices  was  naturally  followed  by 
the  sale  of  judicial  decisions.  The  judges  having  sub- 
mitted to  the  extortions  of  the  king,  the  public  had  to 
endure  the  extortions  of  the  judges.  Corruption  on  the 
bench  produced  corruption  at  the  bar.  Counsel  bought 
the  attention  and  compliance  of  "  the  court,"  and  in 
some  cases  sold  their  influence  with  shameless  rascality. 
They  would  take  fees  to  speak  from  one  side  in  a  cause, 
and  fees  to  be  silent  from  the  other  side — selling  tb.eir 
own  clients  as  coolly  as  judges  sold  the  suitors  of  their 


COUJ^TS    AND     LAWYERS.  -^,3 

courts.  S\'mpathizing  with  the  pubh'c,  and  stung  by 
personal  experience  of  legal  dishonesty,  the  clergy  seme- 
times  denounced  from  the  pulpit  the  extortions  oi  cor- 
rupt judges  and  unprincipled  barristers.  The  assiz'^ 
sermons  of  Charles  I.'s  reign  were  frequently  seasoner'. 
with  such  animadversions.  At  Thetford  .Vssix.es,  March 
1630,  the  Rev.  Mr.  Ramsay,  in  the  assize-sermon,  spckt 
indignantly  of  judges  who  "  favored  causes,"  and  of 
"  counselors  who  took  fees  to  be  silent."  In  the  summer 
of  163 1,  at  the  Bury  Assizes,  "  one  Mr.  Scott  made  a 
sore  sermon  in  discovery  of  corruption  in  judges  and 
others."  At  Norwich,  the  same  authority,  viz.,  "  Sir 
John  Rous's  Diary,"  informs  us — "  Mr.  Greene  was  more 
plaine,  insomuch  that  Judge  Harvey,  in  his  charge,  broke 
out  thus  :  '  It  seems  by  the  sermon  that  we  are  corrupt, 
but  we  know  that  we  can  use  conscience  in  our  places  as 
well  as  the  best  clergieman  of  all. '  " 

In  his  "  Life  and  Death  of  Sir  Matthew  Hale,"  Bishop 
Burnet  tells  a  good  story  of  the  Ch.ief 's  conduct  with  re- 
gard to  a  customary  gift.  "It  is  also  a  custom,"  says 
the  biographer,  "for  the  Marshal  of  the  King's  Bench  to 
present  the  judges  of  that  court  with  a  piece  of  plate  for 
a  New  Year's  Gift,  that  for  the  Chief  Justice  being  largir 
than  the  rest.  This  he  intended  to  have  refus'ed,  but 
the  other  judges  told  him  it  belonged  to  his  office,  and 
the  refusing  it  would  be  a  prejudice  to  his  successors  ;  so 
he  was  persuaded  to  take  it,  but  he  sent  word  to  the 
marshal,  that  instead  of  plate  he  should  bring  him  the 
value  oi  it  in  money,  and  when  he  received  it,  he  imme- 
diately sent  it  to  the  prisons  for  the  relief  and  discharge 
of  tlie  poor  there." 


2S4  PLEASANTRIES     OF    ENGLISH 


CHAPTER  XXXII. 

BY  degrees  the  public  ceased  to  make  presents  to  the 
principal  judges  of  the  kingdom  ;  but  long  after  the 
Chancellor  and  the  three  Chiefs  had  taken  the  last  offer- 
ings of  general  society,  they  continued  to  receive  yearly 
presents  from  the  subordinate  judges,  placemen,  and 
barristers  of  their  respective  courts.  Lord  Covvper  de- 
serves honor  for  being  the  holder  of  the  seals  who,  by 
refusing  to  pocket  these  customary  donations,  put  an  end 
to  a  very  objectionable  system,  so  far  as  the  Court  of 
Chancery  was  concerned. 

On  being  made  Lord  Keeper,  he  resolved  to  depart 
from  the  custom  of  his  predecessors  for  many  generations, 
who  on  the  first  day  of  each  new  year  had  invariably  en- 
tertained at  breakfast  the  persons  from  whom  tribute  was 
looked  for.  Very  droll  were  these  receptions  in  the  old 
time.  The  repast  at  an  end,  the  guests  forthwith  dis- 
burdened themselves  of  their  gold — the  payers  approach- 
ing the  holder  of  the  seals  in  order  of  rank,  and  la)'ing 
on  his  table  purses  of  money,  v/hich  the  noble  payee  ac- 
cepted with  his  own  hands.  Sometimes  his  lordship  was 
embarrassed  by  a  ceremony  that  required  him  to  pick 
gold  from  the  fingers  of  men,  several  of  whom  he  knew  to 
be  in  indigent  circumstances.  In  Charles  II. 's  time  it  was 
observed  that  the  silver-tongued  Lord  Nottingham  on 
such  occasions  always  endeavored  to  hide  his  confusion 
under  a  succession  of  nervous  smiles  and  exclamations — 
*•  Oh^  Tyrant  Cuthom  ! — Oh,  Tyrant  Cuthom  I  " 

It  is  noteworthy  that  in  relinquishing  the  benefit  of 
these  exactions,  the  Lord  Keeper  feared  unfriendly  crit- 
icism much  more  than  he  anticipated  public  commenda- 
tion. In  his  diary,  under  date  December  30,  Cowper 
wrote  : — "  I    acquainted    my   Lord   Treasurer    with   my 


COURTS    AND    LAWYERS.  255 

d-:sign  to  refuse  New  Year's  Gifts,  if  he  had  no  objection 
against  it,  as  spoiling,  in  some  measure,  a  place  of  which 
he  had  the  conferring.  He  answered  it  was  not  expected 
of  me,  but  that  I  might  do  as  my  predecessors  had  done; 
but  if  I  refused,  he  thought  nobody  could  blame  me  for 
it."  Anxious  about  the  consequences  of  his  innovation, 
the  new  Lord  Keeper  gave  notice  that  on  January  i, 
1705-6,  he  would  receive  no  gifts;  but  notwithstanding 
this  proclamation,  several  officers  of  Chancery  and  coun 
selors  came  to  his  house  with  tribute,  and  were  refused 
admittance  "  New  Year's  Gifts  turned  bac'K,"  he  wrote 
in  his  diary  at  the  close  of  the  eventful  day,  "and  pray 
God  it  doth  me  more  credit  and  good  than  hurt,  by 
making  secret  enemies  in  fcece  Romiiliy  His  fears  were 
in  a  slight  degree  fulfilled.  The  Chiefs  of  the  three 
Common-Law  Courts  were  greatly  displeased  with  an 
innovation  which  they  had  no  wish  to  adopt ;  and  their 
warm  expressions  of  dissatisfaction  induced  the  Lord 
Keeper  to  cover  his  disinterestedness  with  a  harmless 
fiction.  To  pacify  the  indignant  Chiefs  and  tne  many 
persons  who  sympathized  with  them,  he  pretended  that 
though  he  had  declined  intentionally  the  gifts  of  the 
Chancery  barristers,  he  had  not  designed  to  exercise  the 
same  self-denial  with  regard  to  the  gifts  of  Chancery 
officers.' 

The  common-law  chiefs  were  slow  to  follow  in  the  La-rd 
Keeper's  steps,  and  many  years  passed  before  the  reform, 
effected  in  Chancer)-  by  accident  or  design,  or  by  a  lucky 

'  II  should  be  observed  tliat  many  persons  are  of  opinion  that  the  Lord 
Kee])cr's  assertion  on  this  point  was  not  an  artifice,  but  a  simple  statement 
I'f  fact.  I'o  those  who  lake  this  view,  his  lordship's  position  seems  alike 
ridiculous  and  respectable — respectable,  because  he  actually  intended  to  for- 
Inar  from  taking  the  barrister.-^'  money;  ridiculous,  because  iluough  clumsy 
and  inadequate  arrangements,  he  missed  the  other  and  not  less  precious 
gifis  uhich  be  did  not  mean  to  decline.  Anyhow,  the  critics  admit  that 
credii  is  due  to  him  for  persisting  in  a  change — wrought  in  the  first  instance 
partly  by  honoraljle  design  and  partly  by  accident. 


256  PLEASANTRIES    OF    ENGLISH 

combination  of  both,  was  adopted  in  the  other  great 
courts.  In  his  memoir- of  Lord  Cowper,  Cainpbel!  ob- 
serves: "  Mis  example  with  respect  to  New  Year's  Gifts 
was  not  speedily  followed;  and  it  is  said  that  till  very 
recently  the  Chief  j  iistice  of  the  Coinmon  Pleas  in\ited 
the  officers  of  his  court  to  a  dinner  at  the  beginniiii;  of 
the  year,  when  each  of  them  deposited  under  his  plate  a 
jn'esent  in  the  shape  of  a  Bank  of  England  note,  instead 
of  a  gift  of  oxen  roaring  at  his  levee,  as  in  ruder  times.'' 
There  is  no  need  to  remind  the  reader  in  this  place  of  the 
many  veracious  and  the  many  apocr\-phal  stories  con- 
cerning the  basket  justices  of  I'ielding's  time, — stories 
showing  that  in  law  courts  of  the  lowest  sort  applicants 
for  justice  were  accustomed  to  fee  the  judges  with  victuals 
and  drink  until  a  comparatively  recent  date. 

Lucky  would  it  have  been  for  the  first  Earl  of  Maccles- 
field if  the  custom  of  selling  places  in  Chancery  had  been 
put  an  end  to  forever  by  the  Lord  Keeper  who  abolished 
the  custom  of  New  Year's  Gifts  ;  but  tiie  judge  who  at 
the  sacrifice  of  one-fourth  of  his  official  income  swept 
away  the  pernicious  usage  which  had  from  time  imme- 
morial marked  the  opening  of  each  year,  saw  no  reason 
why  he  should  purge  Chancery  of  another  scarcely  less 
objectionable  practice.  Following  the  steps  of  their 
predecessors,  the  Chancellors  Cowper,  Harcourt,  and 
Macclesfield  sold  subordinate  offices  in  their  court;  but 
wliereas  all  previous  Chancellors  had  been  held  blameless 
for  so  doing.  Lord  Macclesfield  was  punished  with  official 
degradation,  fine,  imprisonment,  and  obloquy. 

l)y  birth  as  humble'  as  any  kumian  who  before  or 
since  his  time  has  held  the  seals,  Thomas  Parker  raised 
himself  to  the  woolsack  by  great  talents  and   honorable 

'  riie  cases  of  John  Scott,  I'hilip  Yorke,  and  Edward  Sutjden  are  befoic 
tV/:  iiund  of  the  present  writer,  wlien  lie  pens  llie  sentence  lo  which  liiis 
note  refers.  The  social  extraction  of  the  English  bar  will  be  considered  in 
a  later  chapter  of  this  work. 


COURTS    AND     LAWYERS.  257 

industry.  As  an  advocate  he  won  the  respect  of  society 
and  his  profession  ;  as  a  judge  he  ranks  with  the  first  ex- 
positors of  English  law.  Although  for  imputed  cor- 
ruption he  was, hurled  with  ignommy  from  his  high  place, 
no  one  has  ventured  to  charge  him  with  venality  on  the 
bench.  That  he  was  a  spotless  cliaracter,  or  that  Ins 
career  was  marked  by  grandeur  of  purpose,  it  would  be 
difficult  to  estabhsh  ;  but  few  Englishmen  could  at  the 
present  time  be  found  to  deny  that  he  A\a5  in  the  main  an 
upright  peer,  who  was  not  wittingly  neglectful  of  his  duty 
to  the  country  which  had  loaded  him  with  wealth  and 
honors. 

Among  the  many  persons  ruined  by  the  bursting  ot 
the  South  Sea  Bubble  were  certain  Masters  of  Chancery, 
who  had  thrown  away  on  that  wild  speculation  large  sums 
of  which  they  were  the  official  guardians.  Lord  Maccles- 
field was  one  of  the  victims  on  whom  the  nation  wreaked 
its  wrath  at  a  crisis  when  universal  folly  had  produced 
universal  disaster.  To  punish  the  masters  for  their  de- 
linquencies was  not  enough  ;  greater  sacrifices  than  a  few 
comparatively  obscure  placemen  were  demanded  by  the 
suitors  and  wards  whose  money  had  been  squandered  by 
the  fraudulent  trustees.  The  Lord  Chancellor  should  be 
made  responsible  for  the  Chancery  defalcations.  That 
was  the  will  of  the  country.  No  one  pretended  that  Lord 
Macclesfielti  had  originated  the  practice  which  permitteel 
Alasters  in  Chancery  to  speculate  with  funds  placed  under 
tneir  care  ;  attorneys  and  merchants  were  well  aware  that 
in  the  days  of  Harcourt,  Cowper,  Wright,  and  Somers, 
it  had  been  usual  for  masters  to  pocket  interest  accruing 
from  suitor:.'  money  ;  notorious  also  was  it  that,  though 
the  Chancellor  was  theoretically  the  trustee  of  the  money 
confided  to  his  court,  the  masters  were  its  actual  custo- 
dians. Had  the  Chancellor  known  that  the  masters  were 
trafficking  in  dangerous  investments  to  the  probable  loss 


258  FLRASANTRIES     OF    ENGLISH 

of  the  public,  duty  would  have  required  him  to  examine 
their  accounts  and  place  all  trust-moneys  beyond  their 
reach  :  but  until  the  crash  came,  Lord  Macclesfield  knew 
neither  the  actual  worthlessness  of  the  South  Sea  Stock, 
nor  the  embarrassed  circumstances  of  the  defaulting 
masters,  nor  the  peril  of  the  persons  committed  to  his 
care.  The  system  which  permitted  the  masters  to 
speculate  with  money  not  their  own  was  execrable,  but 
the  Lord  Chancellor  was  not  the  parent  of  that  system. 

Infuriated  by  the  national  calamity,  in  which  they 
were  themselves  great  sufferers,  the  Commons  im- 
peached the  Chancellor,  charging  him  with  high  crimes 
and  misdemeanors,  of  which  the  peers  unanimously 
declared  him  guilty.  Li  this  famous  trial  the  great  fact 
established  against  his  lordship  was  that  he  had  sold 
masterships  to  the  defaulters.  It  appeared  that  he  had 
not  only  sold  the  places,  but  had  stood  out  for  very 
high  prices;  the  inference  being,  that  in  consideration 
of  these  large  sums,  he  had  left  the  purchasers  without 
the  supervision  usually  exercised  by  Chancellors  over 
such  officers,  and  had  connived  at  the  practices  which 
had  been  followed  by  ruinous  results.  To  this  it  was 
replied,  that  if  the  Chancellor  had .  sold  the  places  at 
higher  prices  than  his  predecessors,  he  had  done  so  be- 
cause the  places  had  become  much  more  valuable  ;  that 
at  the  worst  he  had  but  sold  them  to  the  highest  bidder, 
after  the  example  of  his  precursors  ;  that  the  inference 
was  not  supported  by  any  direct   testimony. 

Very  humorous  was  some  of  the  evidence  by  which 
the  sale  of  the  masterships  was  proved.  Master  Elde 
deposed  that  he  bought  his  office  for  5,000  guineas,  the 
bargain  being  finally  settled  and  fulfilled  after  a  persona! 
interview  with  the  accused  lord.  Master  Thurston, 
another  purchaser  at  the  high  rate  of  5,000  guineas,  paid 
his  money  to  Lady  Macclesfield.   It  must  be  owned  that 


J 


COURTS    AND    LAWYERS.  259 

these  sums  seem  very  large,  but  their  magnitude  does  not 
fix  fraudulent  purposes  upon  the  Chancellor.  That  he 
believed  himself  fairly  entitled  to  a  moderate  present  on 
appointing  to  a  mastership  is  certain  ;  that  he  regarded 
^2,000  as  the  gratuity  which  he  might  accept,  without 
blushing  at  its  publication,  may  be  inferred  from  the 
restitution  of  ^^3,250  at  a  time  when  he  anticipated  an 
inquiry  into  his  conduct  ;  that  he  felt  himself  acting  in- 
discreetly if  not  wrongfully  in  pressing  for  such  large 
sums  is  testified  by  the  caution  with  which  he  conferred 
with  the  purchasers,  and  the  secrecy  with  which  he  ac- 
cepted their  money. 

His  defense  before  the  peers  admitted  the  sales  of  the 
places,  but  maintained  that  the  transactions  were  legiti- 
mate. 

The  defense  was  of  no  avail.  When  the  question  of 
guilty  or  not  guilty  was  put  to  the  peers,  each  of  the 
noble  lords  present  answered  "  Guilty,  upon  my  honor." 
Sentenced  to  pay  a  fine  of  ^30,000,  and  undergo  im- 
prisonment until  the  mulct  was  paid,  the  unfortunate 
statesman  bitterly  repented  the  imprudence  which  had 
exposed  him  to  the  vengeance  of  political  adversaries  and 
to  the  enmity  of  the  vulgar.  While  the  passions  roused 
by  the  prosecution  were  at  their  height,  the  fallen  Chan- 
cellor was  treated  with  much  harshness  by  Parliament, 
and  with  actual  brutality  by  the  mob.  Ever  ready  to 
vilify  lawyers,  the  rabble  seized  on  so  favorable  an  occa- 
sion for  giving  expression  to  one  of  their  strongest  preju- 
dices. Among  the  crowds  who  followed  the  Earl  to  the 
Tower  with  curses,  voices  were  heard  to  exclaim  that 
"  Staffordshire  had  produced  the  three  greatest  scoundrels 
of  England — Jack  Sheppard,  Jonathan  Wilde,  and  Tom 
Parker."  Jonathan  Wilde  was  executed  in  1725— the 
year  of  Lord  Macclesfield's  impeachment  ;  and  Jack  Shep- 
pard died  on  the  gallows  at  Tyburn,  November  16,  1724. 


26o  PLEASANTRIES    OF    ENGLISH 

Throughout  the  inquiry  and  after  the  adverse  verdict, 
George  I.  persisted  in  showing  favor  to  the  disgraced 
Char.cellor;  and  when  the  violent  emotions  of  the  crisis 
had  passed  away  it  was  generally  admitted  by  enlightened 
critics  of  public  events  that  Lord  M.icclesfuld  had  been 
unfairly  treated.  The  scape-goat  of  popular  wrath,  he 
suffered  less  for  his  own  faults,  than  for  the  evil  results 
of  a  bad  sj^tem  ;  and  at  the  present  time — when  the 
silence  of  more  than  a  hundred  and  thirty  )-ears  rests 
upon  his  tomb — Englishmen,  with  one  voice,  acknowl- 
edge the  valuable  qualities  that  raised  him  to  eminence, 
and  regret  the  proceedings  which  consigned  him  in  his 
old  age  to  humiliation  and  "loom. 


CHAPTER    XXXIII. 

APRON  EN  ESS  to  take  bribes  may  be  generated 
from  the  habit  of  taking  fees,"  said  Lord  Keeper 
Williams  in  his  Inaugural  Address,  making  an  ungener- 
ous allusion  to  Francis  Bacon,  while  he  uttered  a  state- 
ment which  was  no  calumny  upon  King  James's  Bench 
and  Bar,  though  it  is  signally  inapplicable  to  lawyers  of 
the  present  day. 

Of  Wdliams,  tradition  preserves  a  story  that  illustrates 
the  prevalence  of  judicial  corruption  in  the  seventeenth 
centurx',  and  the  jealousy  with  which  that  Right  Reverend 
Lord  Keeper  watched  for  attempts  to  tamper  with  iiis 
honesty.  While  he  was  taking  exercise  in  the  Great 
Park  of  Nonsuch  House,  his  attention  was  caught  by  a 
church  recently  erected  at  the  cost  of  a  rich  Chancery 
suitor.  Having  expressed  satisfaction  with  the  churcn, 
Williams  inquired  of  George  Minors,  "  Has  he  not  a  suit 
depending  in  Chancery.?"  and  on  receiving  an  answer  in 
the  affirmative,  observed,  "  he  shall  not  fare  the  worse  for 


COURTS    AND     LAWYERS.  26; 

building  of  churches."  These  words  being  reported  to 
the  pious  suitor,  he  not  illogically  argued  that  the 
Keeper  was  a  judge  likely  to  be  influenced  in  making  his 
decision  by  matters  distinct  from  the  legal  merits  of  the 
case  put  before  him.  Acting  on  this  impression,  the 
good  man  forthwith  sent  messengers  to  Nonsuch  House,  • 
bearing  gifts  of  fruits  and  poultry  to  the  holder  of  tlie 
seals.  "  Nay,  carry  them  back,"  cried  the  judge,  looking 
with  a  grim  smile  from  the  presents  to  George  Minors; 
"  Nay,  carry  them  back,  George,  and  tell  your  friend 
that  he  shall  not  fare  the  better  for  sending  of  presents." 
Rich  in  satire  directed  against  law  and  its  professors, 
the  literature  of  the  Commonwealth  affords  conclusive 
testimony  of  the  low  esteem  in  which  lawyers  were  held 
in  the  seventeenth  century  by  the  populace,  and  shows 
how  universal  w-as  the  belief  that  wearers  of  ermine  and 
gentlemen  of  the  long  robe  would  practice  any  sort  of 
fraud  or  extortion  for  the  sake  of  personal  advantage. 
In  the  pamphlets  and  broadsides,  in  the  squibs  and  bal- 
lads of  the  period,  may  be  found  a  wealth  of  quaint  narra- 
tive and  broad  invective,  setting  forth  the  rascality  ot 
judges  and  attorneys,  barristers  and  scriveners.  Any 
literary  effort  to  throw  contempt  upon  the  law  was  sure 
of  succr'.ss.  The  light  jesters,  who  made  merry  with  tlie 
phraseology  and  costumes  of  Westminster  Hall,  were  only 
a  few  degrees  less  welcome  than  the  stronger  and  more 
inaignant  scribes  who  cried  aloud  against  the  sins  and 
sinners  of  the  courts.  When  simple  folk  had  expenLied 
ihcir  rage  in  denunciationsof  venal  eloquence  and  unjust 
judgments,  they  amused  themselves  with  laughing  at  the 
antiquated  verbiage  of  the  rascals  wdio  sought  to  conceal 
tlieir  bad  morality  under  worse  Latin.  "A  New  Modell, 
or  the  Conversion  of  the  InfidcU  Terms  of  the  Law  :  For 
the  Better  promoting  of  misunderstanding  according  to- 
Co.nmon  Sense,"  is  a  publication  consisting  of  a  cover  or 


26  2  PLEASANTRIES    OF    ENGLISH 

fly-leaf  and  two  leaves,  that  appeared  about  a  year  be- 
fore the  Restoration.  The  wit  is  not  brilliant ;  its  humor 
is  not  free  from  uncleanness;  but  its  comic  renderings' 
of  a  hundred  law  terms  illustrate  the  humor  of  the  times. 

More  serious  in  aim,  but  not  less  comical  in  result  is 
William  Cole's  "  A  Rod  for  the  Lawyers.  London, 
Printed  in  the  year  1569."  The  preface  of  this  mad 
treatise  ends  thus  : — "  I  do  not  altogether  despair  but 
that  before  I  dye  I  may  see  the  Inns  of  Courts,  or  Dens 
of  Thieves,  converted  into  Hospitals,  which  were  a  rare 
piece  of  ju  stice  ;  that  as  they  formerly  have  immured 
those  that  robbed  the  poor  of  houses,  so  they  may  at 
last  preserve  the  poor  themselves," 

Another  book  touching  on  the  same  subject,  and 
belonging  to  the  same  period,  is,  *'  Sagrir,  or  Doomsday 
drawing  nigh  ;  With  Thunder  and  Lightning  to  Law- 
yers, (1653)  by  John  Rogers." 

Violent,  even  for  a  man  holding  Fifth-Monarchy  views, 
John  Rogers  prefers  a  lengthy  indictment  against  law- 
yers, for  whose  delinquencies  and  heinous  offenses  he  ad- 
mits neither  apology  nor  palliation.  In  his  opinion  all 
judges  deserve  the  death  of  Arnold  and  Hall,  whose  last 
moments  were  provided  for  by  the  hangman.  The  wearers 
of  the  long  robe  are  perjurers,  thieves,  enemies  of  man- 
kind ;  their  institutions  are  hateful,  and  their  usagesabom- 
inable.  In  olden  time  they  were  less  powerful  and  rapa- 
cious. But  prosperity  soon  exaggerated  all  their  evil  qual- 
ities. Sketching  the  rise  of  the  profession,  the  author 
observes — "These  men  would  get  sometimes  Parents, 
Friends,  Brothers,  Neighbors,  sometimes  ^//^^'r^  to  be  (in 
their  absence)  Agents,  Factors,  or  Solicitors  for  them  at 

'  Of  these  renderings  the  subjoined  may  be  taken  as  favorable  spi.-ci- 
mens  : — "  Breve  originale,  original  sinne  ;  capias,  a  catch  to  a  sad  tune  ; 
alias  capias,  another  to  the  same  (sad  tune)  ;  habeas  corpus,  a  trooiser  ; 
capias  ad  saiisfaciend.,  a  hangman  ;  latitat,  bo-peep  ;  nisi  prius,  first  come 
first  served  ;  demurrer,  hum  and  haw  ;  scandal,  magnat.  dtnvn  with  the 
Lords." 


COURTS    AND     LAWYERS.  263 

Westminster,  and  as  yet  they  bad  no  stately  houses  or 
mansions  to  Hve  in,  as  they  have  now  (called  Inns  of 
Court),  but  they  lodged  like  countrymen  or  strangers  in 
ordinary  Inns.  But  afterwards,  when  the  interests  of  law- 
yers began  to  look  big  (as  in  Edward  III.'s  days),  they 
got  mansions  or  colleges,  which  they  called  Inns,  and  by 
the  king's  favor  had  an  addition  of  honor,  whence  they 
were  called  Inns  of  Court."  ' 

The  familiar  anecdotes  which  are  told  as  illustrations 
of  Chief  Justice  Hale's  integrity  are  very  ridiculous,  but 
they  serve  to  show  that  the  judges  of  his  time  were  be- 
lieved to  be  very  accessible  to  corrupt  influences.  During 
his  tenure  of  the  Chiefship  of  the  Exchequer,  Hale  rode 
the  Western  Circuit,  and  met  with  the  loyal  reception 
usually  accorded  to  judges  on  circuit  in  his  day.  Among 
other  attentions  offered  to  the  judges  on  this  occasion 
was  a  present  of  venison  from  a  wealthy  gentleman  who 
was  concerned  in  a  cause  that  was  in  due  course  called  for 
hearing.  No  sooner  was  the  call  made  than  Chief  Baron 
Hale  resolved  to  place  his  reputation  for  judicial  honesty 
above  suspicion,  and  the  following  scene  occurred  : — 

^^  Lord  Chief  Baron. — 'Is  this  plaintiff  the  gentleman 
of  the  same  name  who  hath  sent  me  the  venison?' 
Judge  s  servant. — '  Yes,  please  you,  my  lord.'  Lord  Chief 
Baron. — '  Stop  a  bit,  then.  Do  not  yet  swear  the  jury. 
I  can  not  allow  the  trial  to  go  on  till  I  have  paid  him  for 
his  buck  !  '  Plaintiff. — '  I  would  have  your  lordship  to 
know  that  neither  myself  nor  my  forefathers  have  ever 
sold  venison,  and  I  have  done  nothing  to  your  lordship 
which  we  hath  not  done  to  every  jud^^e  that  has  come 
this   circuit    for   centuries    bygone.'     Magistrate   of  the 

'  Even  vacations  slink  in  the  nostrils  of  Mr.  Rogers  ;  for  he  maintains 
that  they  are  not  so  much  periods  when  lawyers  cease  from  their  odious 
practices,  as  times  of  repose  and  recieation  wherein  they  gain  fresh  vigor 
and  daring  for  the  con•lmis^ion  of  further  outrages,  and  allow  their  unhappy 
victims  to  acquire  just  enough  wealth  to  render  them  worth  the  trouble  oi 
despoiling. 


264  PLEASANTRIES     OE    ENGLISH 

County. — '  ]\I\'  lord,  I  can  confirm  what  the  gcnlkman 
.sa\-s  for  truth,  for  twenty  years  back.'  Other  Magis- 
trates.— 'And  we,  my  lord,  know  the  same.'  Lord  Chief 
Baron. — '  That  is  nothing  to  me.  The  Holy  Scripture 
says,  "A  gift  perverteth  the  ways  of  judgment."  I  will 
not  suffer  the  trial  to  go  on  till  the  venison  is  paid  for. 
Let  my  butler  count  down  the  full  value  thereof.' 
Plaintiff. — '  I  will  not  disgrace  myself  and  my  ancestors 
by  becoming  a  venison  butcher.  From  the  needless 
dread  of  selling  justice,  your  lordship  elelays  it.  I  with- 
draw my  record.'  " 

As  far  as  good  taste  and  dignity  were  concerned,  the 
gentleman  of  the  West  Country  was  the  victor  in  this 
absurd  contest :  on  the  other  hand,  Hale  had  the  venison 
for  nothing,  and  was  relieved  of  the  trouble  of  hearing 
the  cause. 

In  the  same  manner  Hale  insisted  on  paying  for  six 
loaves  of  sugar  which  the  Dean  and  Chapter  of  Salisbury 
sent  to  his  lodgings,  in  accordance  with  ancient  usage. 
Similar  cases  of  the  judge's  readiness  to  construe  courte- 
sies as  bribes  may  be  found  in  notices  of  trials  and  books 
of  ana. 

A  propos  of  these  stories  of  Hale's  squeamishness.  Lord 
Campbell  tells  the  following  good  anecdote  of  Baron 
Graham:  "The  late  Baron  Graham  related  to  me  the 
following  anecdote  to  show  that  he  had  more  firmness 
than  Judge  Hale:  'There  was  a  baronet  of  ancient 
family  with  whom  the  judges  going  the  Western  Circuit 
had  always  been  accustomed  to  dine.  When  I  went  that 
circuit  I  heard  that  a  cause,  in  which  he  was  plaintiff 
was  coming  on  for  trial  •  but  the  usual  invitation  was 
received,  and  lest  the  people  might  suppose  that  judges 
could  be  influenced  by  a  dinner,  I  accepted  it.  The  de- 
fendant, a  neighboring  squire,  being  dreadfully  alarmed 
by  this  intelligence,  said  to  himself.   '  Well,  if  Sir  Johi 


COURTS    AND     LAWYERS.  265 

entertains  the  judge  hospitably,  I  do  not  see  why  I 
should  not  do  the  same  by  the  jury.'  So  he  invited  to 
dinner  the  whole  of  the  special  jury  summoned  to  try 
the  cause.  Thereupon  the  baronet's  courage  failed  him, 
and  he  withdrew  the  record,  so  that  the  cause  was  not 
tried  ;  and,  although  I  had  my  dinner,  I  escaped  all 
suspicion  of  partiality." 

This  story  puts  the  present  waiter  in  mind  of  another 
story  which  he  has  heard  told  in  various  ways,  the  wit 
of  it  being  attributed  by  different  narrators  to  two  judges 
who  have  left  the  bench  for  another  world,  and  a  Master 
of  Chancery  who  is  still  alive.  On  the  present  occasion 
the  Master  of  Chancery  shall  figure  as  the  humorist  of 
the  anecdote. 

Less  than  twenty  years  since,  in  one  of  England's 
southern  counties,  two  neighboring  landed  proprietors 
differed  concerning  their  respective  rights  over  some  un- 
inclosed  land,  and  also  about  certain  rights  of  fishing  in 
an  adjacent  stream.  The  one  proprietor  was  the  richest 
baronet,  the  other  the  poorest  squire,  of  the  county  ;  and 
they  agreed  to  settle  their  dispute  by  arbitration.  Our 
Master  in  Chancery,  slightly  known  to  both  gentlemen, 
was  invited  to  act  as  arbitrator  after  inspecting  the  local- 
ities in  dispute.  The  invitation  was  accepted  and  the 
master  visited  the  scene  of  disagreement,  on  the  under- 
standing that  he  should  give  up  two  days  to  the  matter. 
It  was  arranged  that  on  the  first  day  he  should  walk  over 
the  squire's  estate,  and  hear  the  squire's  uncontradicted 
version  of  the  case,  dining  at  the  close  of  the  day  with 
both  contendents  at  the  squire's  table  ;  and  that  on  the 
second  day,  having  walked  over  the  baronet's  estate,  and 
I'.eard  without  interruption  the  other  side  of  the  story,  he 
should  give  his  award,  sitting  over  wine  after  dinner  at 
the  rich  man's  table.  At  the  close  of  the  first  day  the 
squire  entertained  his  wealthy  neighbor  and  the  arbitra- 


266  PLEASANTRIES     OF    ENGLISH 

tor  at  dinner.  In  accordance  with  the  host's  means,  the 
dinner  was  modest  but  sufficient.  It  consisted  of  three 
fried  soles,  a  roast  leg  of  mutton,  and  vegetables  ;  three 
pancakes,  three  pieces  of  cheese,  three  small  loaves  of 
bread,  ale,  and  a  bottle  of  sherry.  On  the  removal  of  the 
viands,  three  magnificent  apples,  together  with  a  magnum 
of  port,  were  placed  on  the  table  by  way  of  dessert.  At 
the  close  of  the  second  day  the  trio  dined  at  the  baronet's 
table,  when  it  appeared  that,  struck  by  the  simplicity  of 
the  previous  day's  dinner  and  rightly  attributing  the 
absence  of  luxuries  to  the  narrowness  of  the  host's  purse, 
the  wealthy  disputant  had  resolved  not  to  attempt  to  in- 
fluence the  umpire  by  giving  him  a  superior  repast. 
Sitting  at  another  table  the  trio  dined  on  exactly  the 
same  fare, — three  fried  soles,  a  roast  leg  of  mutton,  and 
vegetables;  three  pancakes,  three  pieces  of  cheese,  three 
small  loaves  of  bread,  ale,  and  a  bottle  of  sherry  ;  and  for 
dessert  three  magnificent  apples,  together  with  a  magnum 
of  port.  The  dinner  being  over,  the  apples  devoured,  and 
the  last  glass  of  port  drunk,  the  arbitrator  (his  eyes 
twinkling  brightly  as  he  spoke)  introduced  his  award  with 
the  following  exordium: — "Gentlemen,  I  have  with  all 
proper  attention  considered  your  sole  reasons:  I  have 
taken  due  notice  of  yov\x  joint  reasons:  and  I  have  come 
to  the  conclusion  that  your  dcs{s)frts  are  about  equal." 


CHAPTER  XXXIV. 

ONE  of  the  strangest  cases  of  corruption  among 
English  judges  still  remains  to  be  told  on  the 
slender  authority  which  is  the  sole  foundation  of  the 
weighty  accusation.  In  comparatively  recent  times  there 
have  not  been  manv  eminent  Englishmen  to  whom  "  tra- 


COURTS    AND    LAWYERS.  267 

dition's  simple  tongue  "  has  been  more  hostile  than  Queen 
Elizabeth's  Lord  Chief  Justice,  Popham.  Tiie  younger 
son  of  a  gentle  family,  John  Popham  passed  from  Oxford 
to  the  Middle  Temple,  raised  himself  to  the  honors  of 
the  ermine,  secured  the  admiration  of  illustrious  con- 
temporaries, in  his  later  years  gained  abundant  praise  for 
^^•holesome  severity  towards  foot-pads,  and  at  his  death 
left  behind  him  a  name — which,  tradition  informs  us, 
belonged  to  a  man  who  in  his  reckless  youth,  and  even 
after  his  call  to  the  bar,  was  a  cut-purse  and  highwayman. 
In  mitigation  of  his  conduct  it  is  urged  by  those  who 
credit  the  charge,  that  young  gentlemen  of  his  date 
were  so  much  addicted  to  the  lawless  excitement  of  the 
road,  that  when  he  was  still  a  beardless  stripling,  an  act 
(l  Ed.  VI.  c.  12,  s.  14)  was  passed  whereby  any  peer  of 
the  realm  or  lord  of  parliament,  on  a  first  conviction  for 
robbery,  was  entitled  to  benefit  of  clergy,  though  he 
could  not  read.  But  bearing  in  mind  the  liberties  which 
rumor  is  wont  to  take  with  the  names  of  eminent  per- 
sons, the  readiness  the  multitude  always  display  to 
attribute  light  morals  to  grave  men,  and  the  infrequency 
of  the  cases  where  a  dissolute  youth  is  the  prelude  to  a 
manhood  of  strenuous  industry  and  an  old  age  of  honor — 
the  cautious  reader  will  require  conclusive  testimony 
before  he  accepts  Popham's  connection  with  "the  road  " 
as  one  of  the  unassailab.^e  facts  of  history. 

The  authority  for  this  grave  charge  against  a  famous 
judge  is  John  Aubrey,  the  antiquary,  who  was  born  in 
1627,  just  twenty  years  after  Popham's  death.  "  For 
severall  yeares,"  this  collector  says  of  the  Chief  Justice, 
"  he  addicted  himself  but  little  to  the  studie  of  the  lawes, 
but  profligate  company,  and  was  wont  to  take  a  purse 
with  them.  His  wife  considered  her  and  his  condition, 
and  at  last  prevailed  with  him  to  lead  another  life  and  to 
stick  to  the  studie  of  the  lawe,  which,  upon  her  importu- 


a6S  PLEASANTRIES    OF     ENGLISH 

nity,  he  did,  being  then  about  thirtie  years  old."  As 
Popham  was  born  in  1 53 1,  he  withdrew,  accordinc:^  to 
this  account,  from  the  company  of  gentle  highwaymen 
about  the  year  1 561 — more  tlian  sixty  years  before 
Aubrey's  birth,  and  more  than  a  hundred  years  before 
the  collector  committed  the  scandalous  story  to  writing. 
The  worth  of  such  testimony  is  not  great.  Good  stories 
are  often  fixed  upon  eminent  men  who  had  no  part  in 
the  transactions  thereby  attributed  to  them.  If  this 
writer  were  to  put  into  a  private  note-book  a  pleasant 
but  unauthorized  anecdote  imputing  kleptomania  to 
Chief  Justice  Willes  (who  died  in  1761),  and  fifty  years 
hence  the  note-book  should  be  discovered  in  a  dirty  cor- 
ner of  a  forgotten  closet  and  published  to  the  world — 
would  readers  in  the  twentieth  century  be  justified  in 
holding  that  Sir  John  Willes  was  an  eccentric  thief? 

But  Aubrey  tells  a  still  stranger  story  concerning 
Popham,  when  he  sets  forth  the  means  by  which  the 
judge  made  himself  lord  of  Littlecote  Hall  in  Wiltshire. 
The  case  must  be  given  in  the  narrator's  own  words. 
"  Sir  Richard  Dayrell  of  Littlecot  in  com.  Wilts,  having 
got  his  lady's  waiting-woman  with  child,  when  her  travell 
came  sent  a  servant  with  a  horse  for  a  midwife,  whom 
he  was  to  bring  hoodwinked.  She  was  brought,  and  layd 
the  woman;  but  as  soon  as  the  child  was  borne,  she  saw 
the  knight  take  the  child  and  murther  it,  and  burn  it  in 
the  fire  in  the  chamber.  She  having  done  her  business 
was  extraordinarily  rewarded  fcjr  her  paines,  and  went 
blindfold  away.  This  horrid  action  did  much  run  in  her 
mind,  and  she  had  a  desire  to  discover  it,  but  knew  not 
where  'twas.  She  considered  with  herself  the  time  she 
was  riding,  and  how  many  miles  she  might  have  rode  at 
that  rate  in  th.it  time,  and  that  it  must  be  some  great 
peison's  house,  for  the  room  was  twelve-foot  high  :  and 
she  should  know  the  chamber  if  she  sawe  it.     She  went 


COURTS    AND    LAWYERS.  269 

to  a  justice  of  peace,  and  search  was  made.  The  very 
chamber  found.  The  knight  was  brought  to  his  tryall ; 
and,  to  be  short,  this  judge  had  this  noble  house,  park, 
and  manor,  and  (I  think)  more,  for  a  bribe  to  save  his 
life.  Sir  John  Popham  gave  sentence  according  to  lawe, 
but  being  a  great  person  and  a  favorite,  he  procured  a 
nolle  prosequi^ 

This  ghastly  tale  of  crime  following  upon  crime  has 
been  reproduced  by  later  writers  with  various  exaggera- 
tions and  modifications.  Dramas  and  novels  have  been 
founded  upon  it  ;  and  a  volume  might  be  made  of  the 
ballads  and  songs  to  which  it  has  given  birth.  In  some 
versions  the  corrupt  judge  does  not  even  go  through  the 
form  of  passing  sentence,  but  secures  an  acquittal  from 
the  jury  ;  according  to  one  account,  the  mother,  instead 
of  the  infant,  was  put  to  death  ;  according  to  another, 
the  erring  woman  was  the  murderer's  daughter,  instead 
of  his  wife's  waiting-woman  ;  another  writer  assuming 
credit  as  a  conscientious  narrator  of  facts,  places  the 
crime  in  the  eighteenth  instead  of  the  sixteenth  century, 
and  transforms  the  venal  judge  into  a  clever  barrister. 

In  a  highly  seasoned  statement  of  the  repulsive 
tradition  communicated  by  Lord  Webb  Seymour  to 
Walter  Scott,  the  murder  is  described  with  hideous 
minuteness. 

Changing  the  midwife  into  "  a  Friar  of  orders  grey." 
and  murdering  the  mother  instead  of  the  baby.  Sir 
Walter  Scott  revived  the  story  in  one  of  his  most  popu- 
lar ballads.  But  of  all  the  versions  of  the  tradition  that 
have  come  under  this  wri-ter's  notice,  the  one  that 
departs  most  widely  from  Aubrey's  statement  is  given 
in  Mr.  G.  L.  Rede's  "Anecdotes  and  Biography  "  (1799). 


270  PLEASANTRIES     OE     ENGLISH 


CHAPTER    XXXV. 

FOR  the  last  three  hundred  years  the  law  has  been  a 
lucrative  profession,  our  great  judges  during  that 
period  having  in  many  instances  left  behind  them  large 
fortunes,  earned  at  the  bar  or  acquired  from  ofiicial 
emoluments.  The  rental  of  Egerton's  landed  estates 
^vas  ;^8,000  per  annum — a  royal  income  in  the  days  of 
Elizabeth  and  James.  Maynard  left  great  wealth  to  his 
granddaughters,  Lady  Hobart,  and  Mary,  Countess  of 
Stamford.  Lord  Mansfield's  favorite  investment  was 
mortgage;  and  towards  the  close  Oi"  his  life  the  income 
which  he  derived  for  moneys  lent  on  sound  mortgages 
was  ;^30,ooo  per  annum.  When  Lord  Kenyon  had  lost 
his  eldest  son,  he  observed  to  I\Ir.  Justice  Allan  Park — 
"How  delighted  George  would  be  to  take  his  poor 
brother  from  the  earth  and  restore  him  to  life,  although 
he  receives  ^^"250,000  by  his  decease."  Lord  Eldon 
is  said  to  have  left  to  his  descendants  ;^500,ooo  ;  and 
his  brother,  Lord  Stowell,  whom  we  are  indebted  for 
the  phrase,  "  the  elegant  simplicity  of  the  Three  per 
Cents.,"  also  acquired  property  that  at  the  time  of  his 
death  jielded  i^l2,000  per  annum. 

Lord  Stowell's  personalty  was  sworn  under  ^^230,000, 
and  he  had  invested  considerable  sums  in  land.  It  is 
noteworthy  that  this  rich  lawyer  did  not  learn  to  be  con- 
tented with  the  moderate  interest  of  the  Three  per  Cents, 
until  he  had  sustained  losses  from,  bad  speculations. 
Notable  also  is  it  that  this  rich  lawyer — whose  notorious 
satisfaction  with  three  per  cent,  interest  has  gained  for 
him  a  reputation  of  noble  indifference  to  gain — was  in- 
ordinately fond  of  money. 

These*  great  fortunes  were  raised  from  fees  taken  in 
practice  at  the  bar.  from  judicial  salaries  or  pensions,  and 


II 


COURTS    AND     LAWYERS.  271 

from  other  official  gains — such  as  court  dues,  perquisites, 
sinecures,  and  allowances.  Since  the  Revolution  of  1688 
these  last-named  irregular  or  fluctuating  sources  of  judi- 
cial income  have  steadily  diminished,  and  in  the  present 
day  have  come  to  an  end.  Eldon's  receipts  during  his 
tenure  of  the  seals  can  not  be  definitely  stated,  but  more 
is  known  about  them  and  his  earnings  at  the  bar  than  he 
intended  the  world  to  discover,  when  he  declared  in  Par- 
liament "  that  in  no  one  year  since  he  had  been  made 
Lord  Chancellor  had  he  received  the  same  amount  of 
profit  which  he  enjoyed  while  at  the  bar."  While  he 
was  Attorney-General  he  earned  something  more  than 
;^ 1 0,000  a  year  ;  and  in  returns  which  he  himself  made  to 
the  House  of  Commons,  he  admits  that  in  1810  he  re- 
ceived, as  Lord  Chancellor,  a  gross  income  of  ^^22,720, 
from  which  sum,  after  deduction  of  all  expenses,  there 
remained  a  net  income  of  ^17,000  per  annum.  He  was 
enabled  also  to  enrich  the  members  of  liis  family  with 
presentations  to  office,  and  reversions  of  places. 

Until  comparatively  recent  times  judges  were  danger- 
ously dependent  on  the  king's  favor  ;  for  they  not  only 
held  their  offices  during  the  pleasure  of  the  crown,  but  on 
dismissal  the)' could  not  claim  a  retiring  pension.  In  the 
seventeenth  century  an  aged  judge,  worn  out  by  toil  and 
length  of  days,  was  deemed  a  notable  instance  of  ro\'al 
i.enerosity,  if  he  obtained  a  small  allowance  on  relinquish- 
ing his  place  in  court.  Chief  Justice  Hale  on  his  retire- 
ment was  signally  favored  when  Charles  H.  graciously 
promised  to  continue  his  salary  to  the  end  of  his  life — 
which  was  manifestly  near  its  close.  Under  the  Stuarts, 
the  judges  who  lost  their  places  for  courageous  fidelity 
to  law  were  wont  to  resume  practice  at  the  bar.  To 
provide  against  the  consequences  of  ejection  from 
office,  i^reat  lawyers,  before  they  consented  to  exchange 
the  gains  of  advocacy  for  the  uncertain  advantages  of  the 


27  2  PLEASANTRIES     OF    ENGLISH 

woolsack,  used  to  stipulate  for  special  allowances  over 
and  above  the  ancient  emoluments  of  places.  Lord  Not- 
tingham had  an  allowance  of  ;^4,ooo  per  annum  ;  and 
Lord  Guildford,  after  a  struggle  for  better  terms,  was  con- 
strained, at  the  cost  of  mental  serenity,  to  accept  the 
seals  with  a  special  salary  of  half  that  sum.' 

From  1688  down  to  the  present  time  the  chronicler  of 
changes  in  the  legal  profession  has  to  notice  a  succession 
of  alterations  in  the  system  and  scale  of  judicial  pay- 
ment— all  of  the  innovations  having  a  tendency  to  raise 
the  dignity  of  the  bench.  Under  William  and  Mary  an 
allowance  (still  continued)  was  made  to  holders  of  the 
seal  on  their  appointment,  for  the  cost  of  outfit  and  equip- 
ages. The  amount  of  this  special  aid  was  ^2,000,  but 
fees  reduced  it  to  ^1,843  13.?.  Mr.  Foss  observes — "The 
earliest  existing  record  of  this  allowance  is  dated  June  4, 
1700,  when  Sir  Nathan  Wright  was  made  Lord  Keeper, 
which  states  it  to  be  the  same  sum  as  had  been  allo.ved 
to  his  predecessor." 

At  the  same  period  the  salary  of  a  puisne  judge  was 
but  ;^i,ooo  a  year — a  sum  that  would  have  been  alto- 
gether insufficient  for  his  expenses.  A  considerable  part 
of  a  puisne's  remuneration  consisted  of  fees,  perquisites, 
and  presents.  Among  the  customary  presents  to  judges 
at  this  time  may  be  mentioned  the  zvhite gloves  which  men 
convicted  of  manslaughter  presented  to  the  judges  when 
the)'  pleaded  the  king's  pardon  ;  the  sugar  loaves  which 
the  warden  of  the  fleet  annually  sent  to  the  judges  of 
the  Common  Pleas  ;  and  the  almanacs  yearly  distributed 
among  the  occupants  of  the  bench  by  the  Stationer's 
Company.  From  one  of  these  almanacs,  in  which  Judge 
Rokeby  kept  his  accounts,  it  appears  that  in  the  year  1694 

'  During  the  Commonwealth  the  people  unwilling  to  pay  their  jnd^'? 
liberally,  decided  that  a  thousand  a  year  was  a  sufficient  income  for  a  Lo.  J 
Commissioner  of  the  Great  Seal. 


COURTS    AND     LAWYERS.  273 

the  casual  profits  of  his  place  amounted  to  ^694  4^-.  6d. 
Here  is  the  list  of  his  official  incomes  (net)  for  ten  years  ; 
— in  1689,^1,378  \os.\  in  1690,^1,475  \os.  \od.\  in  169 1, 
^2,063  i8i-.  4<'/.  ;  in  1692,  £\,^'jo  is  4^. ;  in  1693, 
^1,569  13^-.  id.  ;  in  1694,  ^^1,629  4s.  6d.;  in  1695,  ^1,443 
ys.6d.;  in  1656,  i^  1,478  2 j'.  67. ;  in  1697,  i^  1,498  iii-.  iid.; 
in  1698,  £1,6^1  los.  lid.  The  fluctuation  of  the 
amounts  in  this  list  is  wortliy  of  observation  ;  as  it 
points  to  one  bad  consequence  of  the  system  of  paying 
judges  by  fees,  gratuities,  and  uncertain  perquisites.  A 
needy  judge,  whose  income  in  lucky  years  was  over  two 
thousand  pounds,  must  have  been  sadly  pinched  in  years 
when  he  did  not  receive  fifteen  hundred. 

Under  the  heading,  "  The  charges  of  my  coming  into 
my  judge's  place,  and  the  taxes  upon  it  the  i"  yeare  and 
halfe,"  Judge  Rokeby  gives  the  following  particulars  : — 
"  1689,  May  II.  To  M'  Milton,  Deputy  Clerk  of  the 
Crown,  as  per  note,  for  the  patent  and  swearing  privatel^^ 
;^2i  6s.  4d.  May  30.  To  M'  English,  charges  of  the 
patent  at  the  Secretary  of  State's  Office,  as  per  note, 
said  to  be  a  new  fee,  ^6  lOi".  Inrolling  the  patent  in 
Exchequer  and  Treasury,  £2  2,^.  ^d.  Ju.  27.  Wine 
given  as  a  judge,  as  per  vintner's  note,  ^23  195-.  Ju.  24. 
Cakes  given  as  a  judge,  as  per  vintner's  note,  £^  14s.  6d. 
Second-hand  judge's  robes,  with  some  new  lining,  ^^31. 
Charges  for  my  part  of  the  patent  for  our  salarys,  to 
Aaron  Smith,  £"/  155.,  and  the  dormant  warrant,  ^3 — 
;^I0  15^-. — i^ioi  'is.  2d. 
"  Taxes,  ;^420. 

"  The  charges  of  my  being  made  a  sergeant-at-law, 
and  of  removing  myselfe  and  family  to  London,  and  a 
new  coach  and  paire  of  horses,  and  of  my  knighthood 
(all  which  were  within  the  first  halfe  yeare  of  my  coming 
from  York),  upon  the  best  calculation  I  can  make  of 
them,  were  att  least  ^600." 


274  PLEASANTRIES    OF    ENGLISH 

Concerning  the  expenses  attendant  upon  his  removal 
from  the  Common  Pleas  to  the  King's  Bench  in  1695 — 
a  removal  which  had  an  injurious  result  upon  his  income 
— the  judge  records:  "Nov.  I.  To  M'  Partridge,  the 
Crier  of  King's  Bench,  claimed  by  him  as  a  fee  due  to 
the  2  criers, /■2.  Nov.  12.  To  M' Ralph  Hall,  in  full 
of  the  Clerk  of  the  Crown's  bill  for  my  patent,  and  swear- 
ing at  the  Lord  Keeper's,  and  passing  it  through  the 
offices,  ^28  \A,s.  2d.  Dec.  6.  To  M'  Carpenter,  the 
Vintner,  for  wine  and  bottles,  ^^22  105.  6d.  To  Gwin, 
the  Confectioner,  for  cakes,  ^5  35.  6d.  To  M'  Mand  (his 
clerk)  which  he  paid  att  the  Treasury  and  att  the  pell 
for  my  patent,  allowed  there,  ^i  I5i'.  Tot.  £60  2s.  Sd.'^' 
The  charges  for  wine  and  cakes  were  consequences  of  a 
custom  which  required  a  new  judge  to  send  biscuits  and 
macaroons,  sack  and  claret,  to  his  brethren  of  the  bench. 

In  the  reign  of  Georg'e  I.  the  salaries  of  the  common- 
law  judges  were  raised — the  pensions  of  the  chiefs  being 
doubled,  and  Xhe  puisnes  receiving  fifteen  hundred  instead 
of  a  thousand  pounds. 

Cow'per's  incomes  during  his  tenure  of  the  seals  varied 
between  somethingover  seven  and  something  under  nine 
thousand  per  annum  :  but  there  is  some  reason  to  believe 
that  on  accepting  office  he  stipulated  for  a  handsome 
)'early  salary,  in  case  he  should  be  called  upon  to  relin- 
quish the  place.  Evelyn,  not  a  very  reliable  authority, 
but  still  a  chronicler  worthy  of  notice  even  on  questions 
of  fact,  sa\'s — "  Oct.  1705.  M*  Cowper  made  Lord 
Keeper.  Observing  how  uncertain  greate  officers  are  of 
continuing  long  in  their  places,  he  would  not  accept  it 
unless  yj"2,cx)0  a  yeare  w^ere  given  him  in  reversion  when 
he  was  put  out,  in  consideration  of  his  loss  of  practice. 
His  predecessors,  how  little  time  soever  they  had  the 
seal,  usually  got^iO0,O0O,  and  made  themselves  barons." 
It  is  doubtful  whether  this  bargain  was  actually  made; 


I 


COURTS    AND     LAWYERS.  275 

but  long  after  Cowper's  time,  lawyers  about  to  mount 
the  woolsack  insisted  on  having  terms  that  should  com- 
pensate them  for  loss  of  practice.  Lord  Macclesfield  had 
a  special  salary  of  i^4,000  per  annum  during  his  occu- 
pancy of  the  marble  chair,  and  obtained  a  grant  of 
/,"i2,ooo  from  the  King; — a  tellership  in  the  Exchequer 
being  also  bestowed  upon  his  eldest  son.  Lord  King 
obtained  even  better  terms — a  salary  of  ;^6,ooo  per 
annum  from  the  Post  Office,  and  ;^i,200  from  the  Hana- 
per  Office  ;  this  large  income  being  granted  to  him  in 
consideration  of  the  injury  done  to  the  Chancellor's 
emoluments  by  the  proceedings  against  Lord  Maccles- 
.field — whereby  it  was  declared  illegal  for  Chancellors  to 
sell  the  subordinate  offices  in  the  Court  of  Chancery. 
This  arrangement — giving  the  Chancellor  an  increased 
salary  \x\  lieu  of  the  sums  which  lie  could  no  longer  raise 
b}'  sales  of  offices — is  conclusive  testimony  that  in  the 
opinion  of  the  crown  Lord  Macc'esfield  had  a  right  to 
sell  the  masterships.  The  terms  made  by  Lord  North- 
ington  in  1766,  on  resigning  the  Seals  and  becoming 
President  of  the  Council,  illustrate  this  custom.  On 
quitting  the  marble  chair  he  obtained  an  immediate  pen- 
sion of  ;^2,ooo  per  annum  ;  and  an  agreement  that  the 
annual  payment  should  be  made  i^4,OO0  per  annum, 
as  soon  as  he  retired  from  the  Presidency:  he  also  ob- 
tained a  reversionary  grant  for  two  lives  of  the  lucrative 
office  of  Clerk  of  the  Hanaper  in  Chancery. 

In  Lord  Chancellor  King's  time,  among  the  fees  and 
perquisites  which  he  wished  to  regulate  and  reform  were 
t'ne  supplies  of  stationery  provided  by  the  country  for 
the  gre-it  law-officers.  It  may  be  supposed  that  the  sum 
t  uis  expended  on  paper,  pens,  and  wax  was  an  insigni- 
ficant item  in  the  national  expenditure  ;  but  such  was  not 
the  case — for  the  chiefs  of  the  courts  were  i.ccu£tonaed 
to  place  their  personal  friends  on  the  free-li^t  i^a  article's 


276  FLEA  SAX  TIDIES     OF     ENGLISH 

of  stationery.  The  Archbishop  of  Dublin,  a  dignitary 
well  able  to  pay  for  his  own  writing  materials,  wrote  to 
Lord  King,  April  10,  1733  :  "  My  Lord, — Ever  since  I 
had  the  honor  of  being  acquainted  with  Lord  Chancel- 
lors. I  have  lived  in  England  and  Ireland  upon  Chancery 
paper,  pens,  and  wax.  I  am  not  willing  to  lose  an  old 
advantageous  custom.  If  your  lordship  hath  any  to 
spare  me  by  my  servant,  you  will  oblige  your  very  hum- 
ble servant,  "John  Dublin." 

So  long  as  judges  or  subordinate  officers  were  paid  by 
casual  perquisites  and  fees,  paid  directly  to  them  by 
suitors,  a  taint  of  corruption  lingered  in  the  practice  of 
our  courts.  Long  after  judges  ceased  to  sell  injustice, 
they  delayed  justice  from  interested  motives,  and  when 
questions  concerning  their  perquisites  were  raised  they 
would  sometimes  strain  a  point,  for  the  sake  of  their  own 
private  advantage.  Even  Lord  Ellenborough,  whose 
fame  is  bright  among  the  reputations  of  honorable  men, 
could  not  always  exercise  self-control  when  attempts 
were  made  to  lessen  his  customary  profits.  "  I  never," 
writes  Lord  Campbell,  "  saw  this  feeling  at  all  manifest 
itself  in  Lord  Ellenborough  except  once,  when  a  question 
arose  whether  money  paid  into  court  was  liable  to  pound- 
age. I  was  counsel  in  the  case,  and  threw  him  into  a 
furious  passion  by  strenuously  resisting  the  demand  ;  the 
poundage  was  to  go  into  his  own  pocket — being  payable 
to  the  chief  clerk — an  office  held  in  trust  for  him.  If  he 
v/as  in  any  degree  influenced  by  this  consideration,  I 
make  no  doubt  that  he  was  wholly  unconscious  of  it." 

George  III.'s  reign  witnessed  the  introduction  of 
changes  long  required  and  frequently  demanded  in  the 
mode  and  amounts  of  judicial  payments.  In  1779  puisne 
judges  and  barons  received  an  additional  ^400  per  an- 
num, and  the  Chief  Baron  an  increase  of  i^500  a  year. 
Twenty    years   later,  Stat.  39  Geo.  III.,  c.  no,  gave   the 


II 


COURTS    AND     LAWYERS. 


277 


Master  of  the  Rolls  ^4,000  a  year,  the  Lord  Chief  Baron 
iS"4,ooo  a  year,  and  each  of  the  puisne  judges  and  barons 
;^3,ooo  per  annum.  By  the  same  act  also  life-pensions 
of  ^^"4,000  per  annum  were  secured  to  retiring  holders  of 
the  seal,  and  it  was  provided  that  after  fifteen  years  of 
service,  or  in  case  of  incurable  infirmity,  the  Chief 
Justice  of  the  King's  Bench  could  claim  on  retirement 
iJ^3,000  per  annum,  the  Master  of  the  Rolls,  Chief  of 
Common  Pleas,  and  Chief  Baron  ^2,500  per  annum,  and 
each  minor  judge  of  those  courts  or  Baron  of  the  coif, 
;^2,ooo  a  year.  In  1809  (49  Geo.  III.,  c.  127)  the  Lord 
Chief  Baron's  annual  salary  was  raised  to  ;^5,ooo  ;  while 
a  yearly  stipend  of  ;^4,ooo  was  assigned  to  each  puisne 
judge  or  baron.  By  53  Geo.  Ill  ,  c.  153,  the  Chiefs  and 
Master  of  the  Rolls  received  on  retirement  an  additional 
yearly  ;^8oo,  and  the  puisnes  an  additional  yearly  i^6oo. 
A  still  more  important  reform  of  George  III.'s  reign  was 
the  creation  of  the  first  Vice-Chancellor,  in  March,  1813. 
Rank  was  assigned  to  the  new  functionary  next  after  the 
Master  of  the  Rolls,  and  his  salary  was  fixed  at  ^5,000 
per  annum. 

Until  the  reign  of  George  IV.  judges  continued  to 
take  fees  and  perquisites;  but  by  6  Geo.  IV.  c.  82,  83, 
84,  it  was  arranged  that  the  fees  should  be  paid  into  the 
Exchequer,  and  that  the  undernamed  great  officers  of 
justice  should  receive  the  following  salaries  and  pensions 
on  retirement : — 


Lord  Chief  Justice  of  King's  Bench  ;^  10,000 
Lord  Chief  Justice  of  Common  Pleas  8,000 
The  Master  of  the  Rolls  ....  7,000 
The  Vice-Chancellor  of  England  .  .  6,oco 
The  Chief  Baron  of  the  Exchequer  .  7,000 
Each  Puisne  Baron  or  Judge    .     .     .      5,500 


An.  Pension 
An.  Sal.    on  retirement. 

3,750 


;,75o 


3,750 
3750 
3.500 


278  PLEASANTRIES    OF    ENGLISH 

Moreov^er  by  this  act  the  second  judge  of  the  King's 
Bench  was  entitled  as  in  the  preceding  reign,  to  ^^"40 
for  giving  charge  to  the  grand  jury  in  each  term,  and 
pronouncing  judgment  on  malefactors. 

The  changes  with  regard  to  judicial  salaries  under 
William  IV.  were  comparatively  unimportant.  By  2  and 
3  Will.  IV.  c.  116,  the  salaries  of  puisne  judges  and 
barons  were  reduced  to  ;^5,000  a  year  ;  and  by  2  and  3 
Will.  IV.  c.  Ill,  the  Chancellor's  pension,  on  retirement, 
was  raised  tO;^5,ooo,  the  additional  ^1,000  per  annum 
being  assigned  to  him  in  compensation  of  loss  of  patron- 
age occasioned  by  the  abolition  of  certain  offices.  These 
were  the  most  noticeable  of  William's  provisions  with 
regard  to  the  payment  of  his  judges. 

The  present  reign,  wluch  has  generously  given  the 
country  two  new  judges  called  Lords  Justices,  two  addi- 
tional Vice-Chancellors,  and  a  swarm  of  paid  justices,  in 
the  shape  of  county-court  judges  and  stipendiary  magis- 
trates, has  exercised  economy  with  regard  to  judicial 
salaries.  The  annual  stipends  of  the  two  Chief  Justices, 
fixed  in  1825  at  ii'io.OOO  for  the  chief  of  the  King's 
Bench,  and  ;^8,ooo  for  the  chief  of  the  Common  Pleas, 
have  been  reduced,  in  the  ft^rmer  case  to  ^8,000  per  an- 
num, in  the  latter  to  i^7,000  per  annum.  The  Chancel- 
lor's salary  for  his  services  as  Speaker  of  the  House  of 
Lords,  has  been  made  part  of  the  i^  10,000  assigned  to 
his  legal  office  ;  so  that  his  income  is  no  more  than  ten 
thousand  a  year.  The  salary  of  the  Master  of  the  Rolls 
has  been  reduced  from  i^7,ooo  to  ^6,ooo  a  year;  the 
same  stipend,  together  with  a  pension  on  retirement  of 
^^"^.750  being  assigned  to  each  of  the  Lords  Justices. 
The  salary  of  a  Vice-Chancellor  is  ^5,000  per  annum; 
and  after  fifteen  years'  service,  or  in  case  of  incurable 
sickness  rendering  him  unable  to  discharge  the  functions 
of  his  office,  he  can  retire  with  a  pension  of;^3,500. 


COURTS    AND    LAWYERS.  279 

Thurlovv  had  no  pension  on  retirement  ;  but  with  much 
justice  Lord  Campbell  observes :  "  Although  there  was  no 
parliamentary  retired  allowance  for  ex-Chancellor's,  they 
were  better  off  than  at  present,  Thurlow  was  a  Teller  of 
the  Exchequer,  and  had  given  sinecures  to  all  his  rela- 
tions, for  one  of  which  his  nephew  now  receives  a  com- 
mutation of  ^9,000  a  year."  Lord  Loughborough  was 
the  first  ex-Chancellor  who  enjoyed,  on  retirement,  a 
pension  of  ^4,000  per  annum,  under  Stat.  39  Geo.  IIL 
c.  1 10.  The  next  claimant  for  an  ex-Chancellor's  pen- 
sion was  Eldon,  on  his  ejection  from  office  in  1806;  and 
the  third  claimant  was  Erskine,  whom  the  possession  of 
the  pension  did  not  preserve  from  the  humiliations  of  in- 
digence. 

Eldon's  obstinate  tenacity  of  office  was  attended  with 
one  good  result.  It  saved  the  nation  much  money  by 
keeping  down  the  number  of  ex-Chancellors  entitled  to 
^4,000  per  annum.  The  frequency  with  which  govern- 
ments have  been  changed  during  the  last  forty  years  has 
had  a  contrary  effect,  producing  such  a  strong  bevy  of 
lawyers — who  are  pensioners  as  well  as  peers — that  finan- 
cial reformers  are  loudly  asking  if  some  scheme  can  not 
be  devised  for  lessening  the  number  of  these  costly  and 
comparatively  useless  personages.  At  the  time  when  this 
page  is  written  there  are  four  ex-Chancellors  in  receipt 
of  pensions — Lords  Brougham,  St.  Leonards,  Cranworth, 
and  VVestbury  ;  but  death  lias  recently  diminished  the 
roll  of  Chancellors  by  removing  Lords  Truro  and  Lynd- 
hurst.  Not  long  since  the  present  writer  read  a  very 
able  but  one-sided  article  in  a  liberal  newspaper  that 
gave  the  sum  total  spent  by  the  country  since  Lord 
Eldon's  death  in  ex-Chancellors'  pensions  ;  and  in  sim- 
ple truth  it  must  be  admitted  that  the  bill  was  a  fearful 
subject  for  contemplation. 


VII. 
WIGS   AND    GOWNS 


CHAPTER  XXXVI. 

FROM  the  days  of  the  Conqueror's  Chancellor,  Bald- 
rick,  who  is  reputed  to  have  invented  and  christened 
the  sword-belt  that  bears  his  name,  lawyers  have  been 
conspicuous  among  the  best-dressed  men  of  their  times. 
For  many  generations  clerical  discipline  restrained  the 
members  of  the  bar  from  garments  of  lavish  costliness 
and  various  colors,  unless  high  rank  and  personal  influence 
placed  them  above  the  fear  of  censure  and  punishment  ; 
but  as  soon  as  the  law  became  a  lay-profession,  its  mem- 
bers— especially  those  who  were  still  young — eagerly 
seized  the  newest  fashions  of  costume,  and  expended  so 
much  time  and  money  on  personal  decoration  that  the 
governors  of  the  Inns  deemed  it  expedient  to  make  rules 
with  a  view  to  check  the  inordinate  love  of  gay  apparel. 

By  these  enactments  foppish  modes  of  dressing  the 
hair  were  discountenanced  or  forbidden,  not  less  than 
the  use  of  gaudy  clothes  and  bright  arms.  Some  of 
these  regulations  have  a  quaint  air  to  readers  of  this 
generation  ;  and  as  indications  of  manners  in  past 
times  they  deserve  attention. 

From  Dugdale's  "Origines  Juridiciales  "  it  appears  that 
in  the  earlier  part  of  Henry  VII. 's  reign  the  students  and 
barristers  of  the  Inns  were  allowed  great  license  in  set- 
tling for  themselves  minor  points  of  costume  ;  but  before 


II 


COURTS    AND     LAWYERS.  281 

that  paternal  monarch  died  this  freedom  was  lessened. 
Accepting  the  statements  of  a  previous  chronicler,  Dug- 
dale  observes  of  the  members  of  the  Middle  Temple  un- 
der Henry — "  They  have  no  order  for  their  apparell  ;  but 
every  man  may  go  as  him  listeth,  so  that  his  apparell 
pretend  no  lightness  or  wantonness  in  the  wearer;  for, 
even  as  his  apparell  doth  shew  him  to  be,  even  so  he 
shall  be  esteemed  among  them."  But  at  the  period 
when  this  license  was  permitted  in  respect  of  costume, 
the  general  discipline  of  the  Inn  was  scandalously  lax; 
the  very  next  paragraph  of  the  "  Origines  "  showing  that 
the  templars  forbore  to  shut  their  gates  at  night,  where- 
by "  their  chambers  were  often-times  robbed,  and  many 
other  misdemeanors  used." 

But  measures  were  taken  to  rectify  the  abuses  and  evil 
manners  of  the  schools.  In  the  thirty-eighth  year  of 
Henry  VIII.  an  order  was  made  "that  the  gentlemen  of 
this  company  "  (/,  r.,  the  Inner  Temple)  "should  reform 
themselves  in  their  cut  or  disguised  apparel,  and  not  to 
have  long  beards.  And  that  the  Treasurer  of  this  society 
should  confer  with  the  other  Treasurers  of  Court  for  an 
uniform  reformation."  The  authorities  of  Lincoln's  Inn 
had  already  bestirred  themselves  to  reduce  the  extrava- 
gances of  dress  and  toilet  which  marked  their  younger 
and  more  frivolous  fellow-members.  "  And  for  decency 
in  Apparel,"  writes  Dugdale,  concerning  Lincoln's  Inn, 
"  at  a  council  held  on  the  day  of  the  Nativity  of  St. 
John  the  Baptist,  23  Hen.  VIII.  it  was  ordered  that  for 
a  continual  rule,  to  be  thenceforth  kept  in  this  house, 
no  gentleman,  being  a  fellow  of  this  house  should  wear 
any  cut  or  pansid  hose,  or  bryches  ;  or  pansid  doublet, 
upon  pain  of  putting  out  of  the  house." 

Ten  years  later  tiie  authorities  of  Lincoln's  Inn  (33 
Hen.  VIII.)  ordered  that  no  member  of  the  society  "  be- 
irig  in  commons,  or  at  his  repast,  should  wear  a  beard  ; 


2S2  PLEASANTRIES    OE    ENGLISH 

and  whoso  did,  to  pay  double  commons  or  repasts  in  this 
house  during  such  time  as  he  should  have  any  beard." 

By  an  order  of  5  Mail,  i  and  2  Philip  and  Mary,  the 
gentlemen  of  the  Inner  Temple  were  forbidden  to  wear 
long  beards,  no  member  of  the  society  being  permitted 
to  w  ear  a  beard  of  more  than  three  weeks'  growth.  Every 
breach  of  this  law  was  punished  by  the  heavy  fine  of 
twenty  shillings.  In  4  and  5  of  Philip  and  Mary  it  was 
ordered  that  no  member  of  the  Middle  Temple  "should 
thenceforth  v.ear  any  great  bryches  in  their  hoses,  made 
after  the  Dutch,  Spanish,  or  Almon  fashion  ;  or  lawnde 
upon  their  capps  ;  or  cut  doublets,  upon  pain  of  iii'  iiii''  for- 
fa  ture  for  the  first  default,  and  the  second  time  to  be 
expelled  the  house."  At  Lincoln's  Inn,  "in  i  and  2' 
Philip  and  Mary,  one  M'  Wyde,  of  this  house,  was  (by 
special  order  made  upon  Ascension  day)  fined  at  five 
groats,  for  going  in  his  study  gown  in  Cheap-side,  on  a 
Sunday,  about  ten  o'clock  before  noon;  and  in  West- 
minster Hall,  in  the  Term  tim^,  in  the  forenoon."  Mr. 
Wyde's  offt  nse  was  one  of  remissness  rather  than  of  ex- 
cessive care  for  his  personal  appearance.  With  regard  to 
beards  in  the  same  reign,  Lincoln's  Inn  exacted  that  such 
members  "  as  had  beards  should  pay  \2d.  for  every  meal 
they  continued  them  ;  and  ever)-  m,in  "  was  required  "  to 
be  shaven  upon  pain  of  putting  out  of  commons." 

The  orders  made  under  Elizabeth  with  regard  to  the 
same  or  similar  matters  are  even  more  humorous  and 
diverse.  At  the  Inner  Temple  "  it  was  ordered  in  36 
Elizabeth  (16  Juniij,  that  if  any  fellow  in  commons,  or 
lying  in  the  house,  did  wear  either  hat  or  cloak  in  the 
Temple  church,  hall,  buttrx",  kitchin,  or  at  the  buttry- 
barr,  dresser,  or  in  the  garden,  he  should  forfeit  for  every 
such  offense  vi'  viii'^-  And  in  42  Eliz.  (8  Febr.)  that  they 
vo  not  in  cloaks,  halts,  bootes,  and  spurrs  into  the 
city,  but  when  they  ride  out  of  the  town."       This  order 


II 


COURTS    AND     LAWYERS.     '  283 

was  most  displeasing  to  the  your.g  men  of  the  legal 
academies,  who  were  given  to  swaggering  among  the 
brave  gallants  of  city  ordinaries,  and  delighted  in  showing 
their  rich  attire  at  Paul's.  The  Templar  of  the  Inner 
Temple  who  ventured  to  wear  arms  (except  his  dagger) 
in  hall  committed  a  grave  offense,  and  was  fined  five 
pounds.  "  No  fellow  of  this  house  should  come  into  the 
hall"  it  was  enacted  at  the  Inner  Temple,  38  Eliz.  (20 
Dec.)  "  with  any  weapons,  except  his  dagger,  or  his  knife, 
upon  pain  of  forfeiting  the  sum  of  five  pounds."  In  old 
time  the  lawyers  often  quarreled  and  drew  swords  in 
hall  ;  and  the  object  of  this  regulation  doubtless  was  to 
diminish  the  number  of  scandalous  affrays.  The  Middle 
Temple,  in  26  Eliz.  made  six  prohibitory  rules  with  re- 
gard to  apparel,  enacting,  "  i.  That  no  ruff  should  be 
worn.  2.  Nor  any  white  color  in  doublets  or  hoses. 
3.  Nor  any  facing  of  velvet  in  gownes,  but  by  such  as 
were  of  the  bench.  4.  That  no  gentleman  should  walk 
in  the  streetes  in  their  cloaks,  but  in  gownes.  5.  That 
no  hat,  or  long,  or  curled  hair  be  worn.  6.  Nor  any 
gown,  but  such  as  were  of  a  sad  colour."  Of  similar 
orders  made  at  Gray's  Inn.  during  Elizabeth's  reign,  the 
following  edict  of  42  Eliz.  (Feb.  1 1)  may  be  taken  as  a 
specimen  :--"  That  no  gentleman  of  this  society  do  come 
into  the  hall,  to  any  meal,  with  their  hats,  boots,  or  spurs  ; 
but  with  their  caps,  decently  and  orderly,  according  to 
the  ancient  order  of  this  house:  upon  pain,  for  every 
offense  to  forfeit  iii'  4"*,  and  for  the  third  offense  expul- 
sion. Likewise,  that  no  gentleman  of  this  society  do  go 
into  the  city,  or  suburbs,  to  walk  in  the  Fields,  other- 
v.-ise  than  in  his  gown,  according  to  the  ancient  usage 
(^^  the  gentlemen  of  the  Inns  of  Court,  upon  penalty  of 
iii'  iiii"*  for  every  offense  ;  and  for  the  third,  expulsion 
aiid  loss  of  his  chamber." 

At    Lincoln's   Inn  it  was  enacted,  "  in  38  Eliz.,  that  if 


2S4  PLEASANTRIES     OE     ENGLISH 

any  Fellow  of  this  Reuse,  being  a  commoner  or  repaster, 
should  within  the  precinct  of  this  house  wear  any  cIo;ik, 
boots,  spurrs,  or  long  hair,  he  should  pay  for  every 
olfense  five  shillings  for  a  fine,  and  also  to  be  put  out  of 
commons."  The  attempt  to  put  down  beards  at  Lin- 
coln's Inn  failed.  Dugdale  says,  in  his  notes  on  tliat 
Inn,  "  And  in  i  Eliz.  it  was  further  ordered,  that  no 
fellow  of  this  liouse  should  wear  any  beard  above  a  fort- 
nitrht's  growth ;  and  that  whoso  transgresses  therein 
should  for  the  first  offense  forfeit  3^-,  Afd.,  to  be  paid  and 
cast  with  his  commons;  and  for  the  second  time  6s.  8c/., 
in  like  manner  to  be  paid  and  cast  with  his  commons: 
and  the  third  time  to  be  banished  the  house.  But  the 
fashion  at  that  time  of  wearing  beards  grew  then  so 
predominant,  as  that  the  very  next  year  following,  at  a 
council  held  at  this  house,  upon  the  27""  of  November, 
it  was  agreed  and  ordered,  that  all  orders  before  that 
time  touching  beards,  should  be  void  and  repealed."  In 
the  same  year  in  which  the  authorities  of  Lincoln's  Inn, 
forbade  the  wearing  of  beards,  they  ordered  that  no  fel- 
low of  their  society"  should  wear  any  sword  or  buckler; 
or  cause  any  to  be  born  after  him  into  the  town."  Tiiis 
was  the  first  of  the  seven  orders  made  in  i  Eliz.  for  all 
the  Inns  of  Courts  ;  of  which  orders  the  sixth  runs  thus: 
— "  That  none  should  wear  any  veh'et  upper  cap,  neither 
in  the  house  nor  city.  And  that  none  after  the  first  day 
of  January  then  ensuing,  should  wear  any  furs,  nor  any 
manner  of  silk  in  their  apparel,  otherwise  than  he  could 
justifie  by  the  statute  of  apparel,  made  an.  24  H.  8  un- 
der the  penalty  aforesaid."  In  the  eighth  year  of  tlic 
following  reign  it  was  ordained  at  Lincoln's  Inn  "  that 
no  rapier  should  be  worn  in  this  house  by  any  of  the 
society." 

Other  orders  made  in  the  reign  of  James  I.,  and  simi- 
lar enactments  passed  by  the   Inns  in   still   more   recent 


COURTS    AND     LAWYERS.  285 

periods,  can  be  readily  found  on  reference  to  Dugdale 
and  later  writers  upon  the  usages  of  lawyers. 

On  such  matters,  however,  fashion  is  all-powerful;  and 
however  grandly  the  benchers  of  an  Inn  might  talk  in 
their  council-chamber,  they  could  not  prevail  on  their 
youngsters  to  eschew  beards  when  beards  were  the  mode, 
or  to  crop  the  hair  of  their  heads  when  long  tresses  were 
worn  by  gallants  at  court.  Even  in  the  time  of  Elizabeth 
— when  authority  was  most  anxious  that  utter-barristers 
should  in  matters  of  costume  maintain  that  reputation 
for  "sadness"  which  is  the  proverbial  characteristic  of 
apprentices  of  the  law — counselors  of  various  degrees 
were  conspicuous  throughout  the  town  for  brave  attire. 
If  we  had  no  other  evidence  bearing  on  the  point,  knowl- 
edge of  human  nature  would  make  us  certain  that  the 
bar  imitated  Lord  Chancellor  Hatton's  costume.  At 
Gray's  Inn,  Francis  Bacon  was  not  singular  in  loving 
rich  clothes,  and  running  into  debt  for  satin  and  velvet, 
jewels  and  brocade,  lace  and  feathers.  Even  of  that 
contemner  of  frivolous  men  and  vain  pursuits,  Edward 
Coke,  biography  assures  us,  "  The  jewel  of  his  mind  was 
put  into  a  fair  case,  a  beautiful  body  with  comely  coun- 
tenance ;  a  case  which  he  did  wipe  and  keep  clean,  de- 
lighting in  good  clothes,  well  worn  ;  being  wont  to  say 
that  the  outward  neatness  of  our  bodies  might  be  a  mon- 
itor of  purity  to  our  souls." 

The  courts  of  James  I.  and  his  son  drew  some  of  their 
most  splendid  fops  from  the  multitude  of  young  men  who 
were  enjoined  by  the  elders  of  their  profession  to  adhere 
to  a  costume  that  was  a  compromise  between  the  garb  of 
an  Oxford  scholar  and  the  guise  of  a  London  'prenticC. 
The  same  was  the  case  with  Charles  II. 's  London. 
Students  and  barristers  outshone  the  brightest  idlers  at 
Whitehall,  while  within  the  wall  of  their  Inns  benchers 
still  made  a  faint  show  of  enforcing  old  restrictions  upon 


«86  PLEASANTRIES    OF     ENGLISH 

costume.  At  a  time  when  every  Templar  in  society  wore 
hair — either  natural  or  artificial — long  and  elaborately 
dressed,  Sir  William  Dugdale  wrote,  "  To  the  office  of  the 
chief  butler"  (/.  e.,  of  the  Middle  Temple)  "it  likewise 
appertaineth  to  take  the  names  of  those  that  be  absent 
at  the  said  solemn  revells,  and  to  present  them  to  the 
bench,  as  also  inform  the  bench  of  such  as  wear  hats, 
bootes,  long  hair,  or  the  like  (for  the  which  he  is  com- 
monly out  of  the  young  gentlemen's  favor)." 


CHAPTER   XXXVII. 

SAITH  Sir  William  Dugdale,  in  his  chapter  concern- 
ing the  personal  attire  of  judges — "'That  peculiar 
and  decent  vestments  have,  from  great  antiquity  been 
used  in  religious  services,  we  have  the  authority  of  God's 
sacred  precept  to  Moses,  '  Thoti  shalt  make  Jioly  rayvients 
for  Aaron  and  his  sons,  that  are  to  minister  unto  me,  that 
they  may  be  for  glory  and  beauty.' ''  In  this  light  and 
flippant  age  there  are  men  irreverent  enough  to  smile  at 
the  habiliments  which  our  judges  wear  in  court,  for  the 
glory  of  God  and  the  seemly  embellishment  of  their  own 
natural  beauty. 

Like  the  stuff-gown  of  the  utter-barrister,  the  robes  of 
English  judges  are  of  considerable  antiquity;  but  an- 
tiquaries labor  in  vain  to  discover  all  the  facts  relating  to 
their  origin  and  history.  Mr.  Foss  says  that  at  the  Stuart 
Restoration  English  judges  resumed  the  robes  worn  by 
their  predecessors  since  the  time  of  Edward  I. ;  but 
though  the  judicial  robes  of  the  present  day  bear  a  close 
resemblance  to  the  vestments  worn  by  that  king's  judges, 
the  costume  of  the  bench  has  undergone  many  variations 
since  the  twentieth  year  of  his  reign. 


COURTS    AND     LAWYERS.  287 

In  the  eleventh  year  of  Richard  II.  a  distinction  was 
made  between  the  costumes  of  the  chiefs  of  the  King's 
Bench  and  Coinmon  Pleas  and  their  assistant  justices  ; 
and  at  the  same  time  the  Chief  Baron's  inferiority  to  the 
Chief  Justices  was  marked  by  costume. 

Henry  VI. 's  Chief  Justice  of  the  King's  Bench,  Sir 
John  Fortesque,  in  his  delightful  treatise  "  De  Laudibus 
Legum  Angliae,"  describes  the  ceremony  attending  the 
creation  of  a  justice,  and  minutely  sets  forth  the  chief 
items  of  judicial  costume  in  the  Bench  and  Common  Pleas 
during  his  time.  "  Howbeit,"  runs  Robert  Mulcaster's 
rendering  of  the  "  De  Laudibus,"  "  the  habite  of  his  ray- 
ment,  hee  shall  from  time  to  time  forwarde,  in  some 
pointes  change,  but  not  in  all  the  ensignments  thereof. 
For  beeing  a  serjeaunt  at  lawe,  hee  was  cloathed  in  x 
long  robe  priestlyke,  with  a  furred  cape  about  his 
shoulders,  and  thereupon  a  hoode  with  two  labels  such 
as  Doctours  of  the  Lawes  use  to  weare  in  certayne  uni- 
versityes,  with  the  above  described  quoyfe.  But  being 
once  made  a  justice,  in  steede  of  his  hoode,  hee  shall 
weare  a  cloake  cloased  upon  his  righte  shoulder,  all  the 
other  ornaments  of  a  Serjeant  still  remayning  ;  sauing 
that  a  justyce  shall  weare  no  partye  coloured  vesture  as 
a  Serjeant  may.  And  his  cape  is  furred  with  none  other 
than  menever,  whereas  the  Serjeant's  cape  is  ever  furred 
with  whyte  lambe." 

Judicial  costume  varied  with  the  fashion  of  the  day, 
or  the  whim  of  the  sovereign,  in  the  fourteenth  and  fif- 
teenth centuries.  Subsequent  generations  saw  the  in- 
troduction of  other  changes  ;  and  in  the  time  of  Charles 
I.  questions  relating  to  the  attire  of  the.  common-law 
judges  were  involved  in  so  much  doubt,  and  surrounded 
with  so  m>any  contradictory  precedents  and  traditions, 
that  the  judges  resolved  to  simplify  matters  by  confer- 
ence and  unanimous  action.     The  result  of  their  deliber- 


2S8  PLEASANTRIES     OF    ENGLISH 

ation  was  a  decree,  dated  June  6,  1635,  to  which  Sir  John 
Branr.ston,  Chief  of  the  King's  Bench,  Sir  John  Finch, 
Chief  of  the  Common  Pleas,  Sir  Humphrey  Davenport, 
Chief  of  the  Exchequer,  and  all  the  minor  judges  of  the 
three  courts,  gave  subscription. 


CHAPTER  XXXVni. 

THE  changes  effected  in  judicial  costume  during  the 
Commonwealth,  like  the  reformation  introduced  at 
the  same  period  into  the  language  of  the  law,  were  all 
reversed  in  1660,  when  Charles  H.'  s  judges  resumed  the 
attire  and  usages  of  their  predecessors  in  the  first  Charles's 
reign.  When  he  had  satisfied  himself  that  monarchical 
principles  were  sure  of  an  enduring  triumph,  and  that 
their  victory  would  conduce  to  his  own  advantage,  great 
was  young  Samuel  Pepy's  delight  at  seeing  the  ancient 
customs  of  the  lawyers  restored,  one  after  another.  In 
October,  1660,  he  had  the  pleasure  of  seeing  "the  Lord 
Chancellor  and  all  the  judges  riding  on  horseback,  and 
going  to  Westminster  Hall,  it  being  the  first  day  of  term." 
In  the  February  of  1663-4  his  eyes  were  gladdened  by 
the  revival  of  another  old  practice.  "28th  (Lord's  Day). 
Up,  and  walked  to  St.  Paul's,"  he  writes,  "and,  by 
chance,  it  was  an  extraordinary  day  for  the  Readers  of 
Inns  of  the  Court  and  all  the  Students  to  come  to  church, 
it  being  an  old  ceremony  not  used  these  twenty-five 
years,  upon  the  first  Sunday  in  Lent.  Abundance  there 
was  of  students,  more  than  there  was  room  to  seat  but 
upon  forms,  and  the  church  mighty  full.  One  Hawkins 
preached,  an  Oxford  man,  a  good  sermon  upon  these 
words,  'But  the  wisdom  from -above  is  first  pure,  then 
peaceable.'  "  Hawkins  was  no  doubt  a  humorist,  and 
smiled  in  the  sleeve  of  his  Oxford  gown  as  he  told  the 


COURTS    AND     LAWYERS.  289 

law-students  that  peace  characterized  the  highest  sort  of 
wisdom. 

But,  notwithstanding  their  zes.l  in  reviving  old  customs, 
the  lawyers  of  the  Restoration  introduced  certain  novelties 
into  legal  life.  From  Paris  they  imported  th-e  wig  which 
still  remains  one  of  the  distinctive  aJorr.irients  of  the 
English  barrister;  and  from  the  same  center  of 
civilization  they  introduced  certain  refinements  of 
cookery,  which  had  been  hitherto  unknown  in  the 
taverns  of  Fleet-street  and  the  Strand.  In  the  earlier 
part  of  the  "merry  monarch's"  reign,  the  eating-house 
most  popular  with  young  barristers  and  law-student.'? 
was  kept  by  a  French  cook  named  Chattelin,  who,  be- 
sides entertaining  his  customers  with  delicate  fare  and 
choice  wine,  enriched  our  language  with  the  word 
"  cutlet  " — in  his  day,  spelt  costelet. 

In  the  seventeenth  century,  until  wigs  were  generally 
adopted,  the  common-law  judges,  like  their  precursors 
for  several  past  generations,  wore  in  court  velvet  caps, 
coifs,  and  cornered  caps.  Pictures  preserve  to  us  the 
appearance  of  justices,  with  their  heads  covered  by  one 
or  two  of  these  articles  of  dress,  the  mustache  in  many 
instances  adorning  the  lip,  and  a  well-trimmed  beard 
giving  point  to  the  judicial  chin.  The  more  common 
head-dress  was  the  coif  and  coif-cap,  of  which  it  is  neces- 
sary to  say  a  few  words. 

The  coif  was  a  covering  for  the  head,  made  of  white 
lawn  or  silk,  and  common-law  judges  wore  it  as  a  sign 
that  they  were  members  of  the  learned  brotherhood  of 
sergeants.  Speaking  of  the  sergeants  Fortescue  in  his 
"  De  Laudibus,"  says — "Wherefore  to  this  state  and  de- 
gree hath  no  man  beene  hitherto  admiticd,  except  he 
hath  first  continued  by  the  space  of  sixteene  years  in  the 
said  generall  studie  of  the  law,  and  in  token  or  signe, 
that  all  justices  are  thus  graduat,  every  of  them  alwaies, 


290  PLEASANTRIES    OF    ENGLISH 

while  he  sitteth  in  the  Kinges  Courts,  weareth  a  white 
quoyfe  of  silke  ;  which  is  the  principal  and  chiefe  insii^n- 
ment  of  habitc,  v/hv-.-ew^th  serjeants-at-lawe  in  their  crea- 
tion are  decked.  And  neither  the  justice,  nor  yet  the 
serjeaunt,  shall  c->.  c^r  put  of  the  quoife,  no  not  in  the 
kinges  presence,  Lhough  he  bee  in  talke  with  his  majes- 
ties highnesse."  At  times  it  was  no  easy  matter  to  take 
the  coif  from  the  head  ;  for  the  white  draper)'  was  fixed 
to  its  place  with  strings,  which  in  the  case  of  one  noto- 
rious rascal  were  not  up.tied  without  difficulty.  In 
Henry  III.'s  reign,  when  William  de  Bussy  was  charged 
in  open  court  with  corruption  and  dishonesty,  he  claimed 
th.c  benefit  of  clerical  orders,  and  endeavored  to  remove 
his  coif  in  order  that  he  might  display  his  tonsure;  but 
before  he  could  effect  his  purpose,  an  officer  of  the  court 
seized  him  by  the  throat  and  dragged  him  off  to  prison. 
"  Voluit,"  says  Matthew  Paris,  "ligamenta  coifae  suae 
solvere,  ut  palam  monstraret  se  tonsuram  habere  clerica- 
lem  ;  sed  non  est  permissus.  Satclles  vero  eum  arripiens, 
non  per  coifae  ligamina  sed  per  guttur  eum  apprehendens, 
traxit  ad  carcerem."  From  which  occurrence  Spelman 
drew  the  untenable,  and  indeed,  ridiculous  inference, 
that  the  coif  was  introduced  as  a  veil,  beneath  which 
ecclesiastics  who  wished  to  practice  as  judges  or  counsel 
in  the  secular  courts,  might  conceal  the  personal  mark 
of  their  order. 

The  coif  cap  is  still  worn  in  undiminished  proportions 
by  judges  when  they  pass  sentence  of  death,  and  is  gen- 
erally known  as  the  "  black  cap."  In  old  time  the 
justice,  on  making  ready  to  pronounce  the  awful  words 
which  consigned  a  fellow-creature  to  a  horrible  death, 
\vas  wont  to  draw  up  the  flat,  square,  dark  cap,  that 
sometimes  hung  at  the  nape  of  his  neck,  or  the  upper 
part  of  his  shoulder.  Having  covered  the  whiteness  of 
his   coif,   and  partly  concealed  his  forehead  and   brows 


COURTS    AND    LAWYERS.  291 

with  the  sable  cloth,  he  proceeded  to  utter  the  dread 
sentence  with  solemn  composure  and  firmness.  At  present 
the  black  cap  is  assumed  to  strike  terror  into  the  hearts 
of  the  vulgar;  formerly  it  was  pulled  over  the  eyes,  to 
hide  the  emotion  of  the  judge. 

Shorn  of  their  original  size,  the  coif  and  the  coif  cap 
may  still  be  seen  in  the  wigs  worn  by  sergeants  at  the 
present  day.  The  black  blot  which  marks  the  crown  of 
a  sergeant's  wig  is  generally  spoken  of  as  his  coif,  but 
this  designation  is  erroneous.  The  black  blot  is  the 
coif-cap  ;  and  those  who  wish  to  see  the  veritable  coif 
must  take  a  near  view  of  the  wig,  when  they  will  see  that 
between  the  black  silk  and  the  horse-hair  there  lies  a 
circular  piece  of  white  lawn,  which  is  the  vestige  of  that 
pure  raiment  so  reverentially  mentioned  by  Fortescue. 
On  the  general  adoption  of  wigs,  the  sergeants,  like  the 
rest  of  the  bar,  followed  in  the  wake  of  fashion  ;  but  at 
first  they  wore  their  old  coifs  and  caps  over  their  false 
hair.  Finding  this  plan  cumbersome,  they  gradually 
diminished  the  size  of  the  ancient  covering,  until  the 
coif  and  cap  became  the  absurd  thing  which  resembles  a 
bald  place  covered  with  court-plaster  quite  as  much  as 
the  rest  of  the  wig  resembles  human  hair. 

While  the  common-law  judges  of  the  seventeenth 
century,  before  the  introduction  of  wigs,  wore  the  un- 
diminished coif  and  coif-cap,  the  Lord  Chancellor,  like 
the  Speaker  of  the  House  of  Commons,  wore  a  hat. 
Lord  Keeper  Williams,  the  last  clerical  holder  of  the 
seals,  used  to  wear  in  the  Court  of  Chancery  a  round 
conical  hat.  Bradshaw,  sitting  as  president  of  the  com- 
missioners who  tried  Charles  L,  wore  a  hat  instead  of 
the  coif  and  cap  which  he  donned  at  other  times  as  a 
sergeant  of  law.  Kennett  tells  us  that  "  Mr.  Sergeant 
Bradshaw,  the  President,  was  afraid  of  some  tumult  upon 
such  new  and  unprecedented  insolence  as  that  of  sitting 


292  PLEASANTRIES     OF    ENGLISH 

judge  upon  his  king;  and  therefore,  besides  other  de- 
fense, he  had  a  thick,  big-crowned  beaver  hat,  lined  with 
phvted  steel,  to  ward  off  blows."  It  is  scarcely  credible 
tliat  Bradshaw  resorted  to  such  means  for  securing  his 
own  safety,  for  in  case  of  tumult  a  hat,  however  strong, 
would  have  been  an  insignificant  protection  against 
popular  fury.  If  conspirators  had  resolved  to  take  his 
life,  they  would  have  tried  to  effect  their  purpose  by 
shooting  or  stabbing  him,  not  by  knocking  him  on  the 
head.  A  steel-plated  hat  would  have  been  but  a  poor 
guard  against  the  bludgeon,  and  a  still  poorer  defense 
against  poniard  or  pistol.  It  is  far  more  probable  that 
in  laying  aside  the  ordinary  head  dress  of  an  English 
common-law  judge,  and  in  assuming  a  high-crowned  hat, 
the  usual  covering  of  a  Speaker,  Bradshaw  endeavored 
to  mark  the  exceptional  character  of  the  proceeding, 
and  to  remind  the  public  that  he  acted  under  parlia- 
mentary sanction.  Whatever  the  wearer's  object,  Eng- 
land was  satisfied  that  he  had  a  notable  purpose,  and 
persisted  in  regarding  the  act  as  significant  of  cowardice 
or  of  insolence,  of  anxiety  to  keep  within  the  lines  of 
parliamentary  privilege,  or  of  readiness  to  set  all  law  at 
defiance.  At  the  time  and  long  after  Bradshaw's  death, 
that  hat  caused  an  abundance  of  discussion  ;  it  was  a 
problem  which  men  tried  in  vain  to  solve,  an  enigma 
that  puzzled  clever  heads,  a  riddle  that  was  interpreted 
as  an  insult,  a  caution,  a  protest,  a  menace,  a  doubt. 
Oxford  honored  it  with  a  Latin  inscription,  and  a  place 
among  the  curiosities  of  the  university,  and  its  memory 
is  preserved  to  Englishmen  of  the  present  day  in  the 
familiar  lines — 

"Where  England's  monarch  once  uncovered  sat, 
And  Bradbhaw  bullied  in  a  broad-brimmed  hat." 

Judges  were  by  no  means  unanimous  with  regard   to 
the  adoption  of  wigs,  some  of  them  obstinately  refusing 


COURTS    AND     LAWYERS.  293 

to  disfigure  themselves  with  false  tresses,  and  others  dis- 
playing a  foppish  delight  in  the  new  decoration.  Sir 
Matthew  Hale,  who  died  in  1676,  to  the  last  steadily  re- 
fused to  decorate  himself  with  artificial  locks.  The  like- 
ness of  the  Chief  Justice  that  forms  the  frontispiece  to 
Burnet's  memoir  of  the  lawj'er  represents  him  in  his 
judicial  robes,  wearing  his  SS  collar,  and  having  on  his 
head  a  cap — not  the  coif  cap,  but  one  of  the  close-fitting 
skull-caps  worn  by  judges  in  the  seventeenth  century. 
Such  skull-caps,  it  has  been  observed  in  a  prior  page  of 
this  work,  were  worn  by  barristers  under  their  wigs,  and 
country  gentlemen  at  home,  during  the  last  century. 
Into  such  caps  readers  have  seen  Sir  Francis  North  put 
his  fees.  The  portrait  of  Sir  Creswell  Levinz  (who  re- 
turned to  the  bar  on  dismissal  from  the  bench  in  1686) 
shows  that  he  wore  a  full-bottomed  wig  while  he  was  a 
judge  ;  whereas  Sir  Thomas  Street,  who  remained  a 
judge  till  the  close  of  James  II.'s  reign,  wore  his  own 
hair  and  a  coif  cap 

When  Shaftesbury  sat  in  court  as  Lord  High  Chan- 
cellor of  England  he  wore  a  hat,  which  Roger  North  is 
charitable  enough  to  think  mi;^ht  have  been  a  black  hat. 
''  His  lordship,"  says  the  "  Examen,"  "  regarded  censure 
so  little,  that  he  did  not  concern  himself  to  use  a  decent 
habit  as  became  a  judge  of  his  station  ;  for  he  sate  upon 
the  bench  in  an  ash-colored  gown  silver  laced,  and  full- 
ribboned  pantaloons  displa}-ed,  without  any  black  at  all 
in  his  garb,  unless  it  were  his  hat,  which,  now,  I  can  not 
positively  say,  thougli  I  saw  him,  was  so." 

Even  so  late  as  Queen  Anne's  reign,  which  witnessed 
the  introduction  of  tliree-cornercd  hats,  a  Lord  Keeper 
wore  his  own  hair  in  court  instead  of  a  wig,  until  he  re- 
ceived the  sovereign's  order  to  adopt  the  venerable  dis- 
guise of  a  full-bottomed  wig.  Lady  Sarah  Cowper  re- 
corded of  her  father,  1705  : — "the  queen  after  this  was 


2  94  PLEASANTRIES     OF    ENGLISH 

persuaded  to  trust  a  Whigg  ministry,  and  in  the  year 
1705,  Octr.,  she  made  my  father  Ld.  Keeper  of  the  Great 
Seal,  in  the  41st  year  of  his  age, — 'tis  said  the  youngest 
Lord  Keeper  that  ever  had  been.  He  looked  very  young, 
arid  wearing  his  own  hair  made  him  appear  yet  more  so, 
which  the  queen  observing,  obUged  him  to  cut  it  off. 
tciiing  him  the  world  would  say  she  had  given  the  seals 
to  a  bo)-." 

The  )'oung  Lord  Keeper  of  course  obeyed  ;  and  when 
h.e  appeared  for  the  first  time  at  court  in  a  wig,  his  aspect 
was  go  grave  and  reverend  that  the  queen  had  to  look  at 
him  twice  before  she  recognized  him.  More  than  half  a 
century  later,  George  IL  experienced  a  similar  difficulty, 
when  Lord  Hardwicke,  after  the  close  of  his  long  period 
of  official  service,  showed  himself  at  court  in  a  plain  suit 
of  black  velvet,  with  a  bag  and  sword.  Familiar  with 
the  appearance  of  the  Chancellor  dressed  in  full-bottomed 
wig  and  robes,  the  king  failed  to  detect  his  old  friend  and 
servant  in  the  elderly  gentleman  who,  in  the  garb  of  a 
private  person  of  quality,  advanced  and  rendered  due 
obeisance.  "  Sir,  it  is  Lord  Hardwicke,"  whispered  a  lord 
in  waiting  who  stood  near  his  Majest}''s  person,  and  saw 
the  cause  of  the  cold  reception  given  to  the  ex-Chancellor. 
But  unfortunately  the  king  was  not  more  familiar  with 
the  ex-Chancellor's  title  than  his  appearance,  and  in  a 
disastrous  endeavor  to  be  affable  inquired,  with  an  affec- 
tation of  interest,  "  How  long  has  your  lordship  been  in 
town  ?  "  The  peer's  surprise  and  chagrin  were  great  until 
the  monarch,  having  received  further  instructions  from 
the  courtly  prompter  at  his  elbow,  frankly  apologized  in 
bad  English  and  with  noisy  laughter.  '"  Had  Lord 
Hardwicke,"  says  Campbell,  "  worn  such  a  uniform  as 
that  invented  by  George  IV.  for  ex-Chanceilors  (very 
much  like  a  Field  Marshal's),  he  could  not  have  been 
mistaken  for  a  common  man." 


COURTS    AND     LAWYERS.  295 

Thejudges  who  at  the  first  introduction  of  wigs  refused 
to  adopt  them  were  prone  to  express  their  dissatisfaction 
with   those   coxcombical    contrivances   when     exhibited 
upon  the  heads  of  counsel  ;   and  for  some  years  prudent 
juniors,  anxious  to  win  the  favorable  opinion  of  anti-wig 
justices,  decHned  to  obey  the  growing  fashion.     Chief  Jus- 
tice Hale,  a  notable  sloven,  conspicuous  among  common 
law  judges  for  the  meanness  of  his  attire,  just  as  Shaftes- 
bury was  conspicuous  in  the  Court  of  Chancery  for  fop- 
pishness, cherished  lively  animosity  for  two  sorts  of  legal 
practitioners — attorneys  who   wore   swords,  and    young 
Templars  who  adorned  themselves  with  periwigs.   Bishop 
Burnet  says  of  Hale  :  "  He  was  a  great  encourager  of  all 
young  persons   that   he  saw   followed   their  books  dili- 
gently, to  whom  he  used  to  give   directions   concerning 
the  method  of  their  study,  with  a  humanity  and  sweet- 
ness that  wrought  much  on  all  that  came  near  him  ;  and 
in  a  smiling,  pleasant  way  he  would  admonish  them,  if  he 
saw  anything  amiss  in  them  ;  particularly  if  they   went 
too  fine  in  their  clothes,  he  would  tell  them  it  did  not  be- 
come their  profession.   He  was  not  pleased  to  see  students 
wear  long  periwigs,  or  attorneys  go  with  swords,  so  that 
such  men  as  would  not  be  persuaded  to  part  with  those 
vanities,  v/hen  they  went  to  him    laid   them   aside,  and 
went  as  plain  as  they  could,  to  avoid  the   reproof  which 
they  knew  they  might  otherwise  expect."     In  England, 
however,  barristers  almost  universally  wore   wigs  at    the 
close   of   the    seventeenth    century  :    but    north    of   the 
Tweed  advocates  wore   cocked   hats   and    powered    hair 
so  lace  as  the  middle  of  the  eighteenth  century.     When 
Alexander  Wedderburn    joined   the  Scotch  bar  in  1754, 
wigs  had  not  come  into  vogue  with  the  members  of  his 
profession. 

Many  are  the  good   stories  told  of  judicial   wigs,  and 
amoncf    the   best  of    them    is   the  anecdote    which   that 


296  PLEASANTRIES     OF    ENGLISH 

malicious  talker,  Samuel  Ro<7ers,  deliijhted  to  tell  at 
Edward  Law's  expense.  "  Lord  Ellenborough,"  says  the 
"Table-Talk,"  "  was  once  about  to  go  on  circuit,  when 
Lady  Ellenborough  said  that  she  should  like  to  accom- 
pany him.  He  replied  that  he  had  no  objection  provided 
she  did  not  encumber  the  carriage  with  bandboxes,  which 
were  his  utter  abhorrence.  During  the  first  day's  journey 
Lord  Ellenborough,  happening  to  stretch  his  legs,  struck 
his  foot  against  something  below  the  seat;  he  discovered 
that  it  was  a  bandbox.  Up  went  the  window,  and  out 
went  the  bandbox.  The  coachman  stopped,  and  the  foot- 
man, thinking  that  the  bandbox  had  tumbled  out  of  the 
window  by  some  extraordinary  chance,  was  going  to  pick 
it  up,  when  Lord  Ellenborough  furiously  called  out, 
'  Drive  on  ! '  The  bandbox,  accordingly  was  left  by  the 
ditchside.  Having  reached  the  county  town  where  he 
was  to  ofiiciate  as  judge.  Lord  Ellenborough  proceeded 
to  array  himself  for  his  appearance  in  the  court-house. 
'  Now,'  said  he,  '  where's  my  wig? — where  is  my  wig?' 
'  My  Lord,'  replied  his  attendant,  '  it  was  thrown  out  of 
the  carriage  window  ! '  " 

Changing  together  with  fashion,  barristers  ceased  to 
wear  their  wigs  in  society  as  soon  as  the  gallants  and 
bucks  of  the  West  End  began  to  appear  with  their 
natural  tresses  in  theaters  and  ball-rooms  ;  but  the  con- 
servative genius  of  the  law  has  hitherto  triumphed  over 
the  attempts  of  eminent  advocates  to  throw  the  wig  out 
of  Westminster  Hall.  When  Lord  Campbell  argued  the 
great  Privilege  case,  he  obtained  permission  to  appear 
without  a  wig  ;  but  this  concession  to  a  counsel — who, 
on  that  occasion,  spoke  for  sixteen  hours — was  accom- 
panied with  an  intimation  that  "  it  was  not  to  be  dr.nvn 
into  precedent." 

Less  wise  or  less  fortunate  than  the  bar,  the  judges  of 
England  wore  their  wigs  in  society  after  advocates  of  all 


COUJ^TS    AND     LAWYERS.  2^,7 

ranks  and  degrees  had  agreed  to  lay  aside  the  professional 
head-gear  during  hours  of  relaxation.  Lady  Eldon'sgood 
taste  and  care  for  her  husband's  comfort  induced  Lord 
Eldon,  soon  after  his  elevation  to  the  pillow  of  the  Com- 
mon Pleas,  to  beg  the  king's  permission  that  he  might  put 
off  his  judicial  wig  on  leaving  the  courts  ia  which  as 
Chief  Justice  he  would  be  required  to  preside.  The  peti- 
tion did  not  meet  with  a  favorable  reception.  For  a 
minute  George  II L  hesitated;  whereupon  Eldon  sup- 
ported his  prayer  by  observing,  with  the  fevor  of  an  old- 
fashioned  Tory,  that  the  lawyer's  wig  was  a  detestable 
innovation — unknown  in  the  days  of  James  I.  and  Charles 
the  Martyr,  the  judges  of  which  two  monarchs  would  have 
rejected  as  an  insult  anj'  proposal  that  they  should  assume 
a  head-dress  fit  only  for  madmen  at  masquerades  or 
mummers  at  country  wakes.  "  What !  what  !  "  cried  the 
king,  sharply  ;  and  then  smiling  mischievously,  as  lie 
suddenly  saw  a  good  answer  to  the  plausible  argument, 
he  added — "True,  my  lord,  Charles  the  First's  judges 
wore  no  wigs  but  they  wore  beards.  You  may  do  the 
same,  if  you  like.  You  may  please  yourself  about  wear- 
ing or  not  wearing  your  wig;  but  mind,  if  you  please 
yourself  by  imitating  the  old  judges,  as  to  the  head — you 
must  please  me  by  imitating  them  as  to  the  chin.  You 
may  lay  aside  your  wig;  but  if  you  do — )'ou  must  wear 
a  beard."  Had  he  lived  in  these  days,  when  barristers 
occasionally  wear  beards  in  court,  and  judges  are  not  less 
conspicuous  than  the  junior  bar  for  magnitude  of  nose 
and  whisker,  Eldon  would  have  accepted  the  condition. 
But  the  last  year  of  the  last  century  was  the  very  center 
and  core  of  that  time  which  may  be  called  the  period  of 
close  shavers  ;  and  John  Scott,  the  decorous  and  respect- 
able, would  have  endured  martyrdom  rather  than  ha\'e 
grown  a  beard,  or  have  allowed  his  whiskers  to  exceed 
the  limits  of  mutton-chop  whiskers. 


2o3  PLEASaNI'-RIES     OF    ENGLISH 

As  Chief  Justice  of  the  Common  Pleas,  and  subse- 
({uenLly  as  Chancellor,  Eldon  wore  his  wig  whenever  he 
appCcircci  in  general  society  ;  but  in  tht  privacy  of  his  own 
lnjuse:  be  gratified  Lady  Eldon  by  laying  aside  the  official 
head-gear.  That  this  was  his  usage  the  gossips  of  the 
law-courts  knew  well ;  and  at  Carlton  House,  when  the 
Prince  of  Wales  was  most  indignant  with  the  Chancellor 
Vv'ho  subsequently  became  his  familiar  friend,  courtiers 
were  wont  to  soothe  the  royal  rage  with  diverting  anec- 
dotes of  the  attention  which  the  odious  lawyer  lavished  on 
the  natural  hair  which  gave  his  Bessie  so  much  delight. 
On  one  occasion,  when  Eldon  was  firmly  supporting  the 
cause  of  the  Princess  of  Wales,  *'  the  first  gentleman  of 
Europe  "  forgot  common  de.cency  so  far  that  he  made  a 
jeering  allusion  to  this  instance  of  the  Chancellor's 
domestic  amiability.  "  I  am  not  the  sort  of  person," 
growled  the  prince,  with  an  outbreak  of  peevishness,  "  to 
let  my  hair  grow  under  my  wig  to  please  my  wife." 
With  becoming  dignity  Eldon  answered — "Your  Royal 
Highness  condescends  to  be  personal.  I  beg  leave  to 
withdraw ;  "  and  suiting  his  action  to  his  words,  the 
Chancellor  made  a  low  bow  to  the  angry  prince,  and  re- 
tired. The  prince  sneaked  out  of  the  position  by  an 
untruth  instead  of  an  apology.  On  the  following  day  he 
caused  a  written  assurance  to  be  conveyed  to  the  Chan- 
cellor that  the  offensive  speech  "  was  nothing  personal, 
but  simply  a  proverb — a  proverbial  way  of  saying  a  man 
was  governed  by  his  wife."  It  is  needless  to  say  that 
the  expression  was  not  proverbial,  but  distinctly  and 
grossly  personal.  Lord  Malmesbury's  comment  on  this 
affair  is  "  Very  absurd  of  Lord  Eldon  :  but  explained  by 
his  having  literally  done  what  the  prince  said."  Lord 
Eldon's  conduct  absurd  !     What  was  the  prince'^  r 


COURTS    AND     LAWYERS.  299 


CHAPTER  XXXIX. 

BANDS  came  into  fashion  with  Englislimen  many- 
years  before  wigs,  but  like  wigs  they  were  worn  in 
general  society  before  they  became  a  recognized  and  dis- 
tinctive feature  of  professional  costume.  Ladies  of 
rank  dyed  their  hair  and  wore  false  tresses  in  Eliza- 
bethan England ;  but  their  example  was  not  ex- 
tensively followed  by  the  men  of  their  time  — 
although  the  courtiers  of  the  period  sometimes  donned 
"periwinkles,"  to  the  extreme  disgust  of  the  multi- 
tude, and  the  less  stormy  disapprobation  of  the  polite. 
The  frequency  with  which  bands  are  mentioned  in 
Elizabethan  literature  affords  conclusive  evidence  that 
they  were  much  worn  towards  the  close  of  the  six- 
teenth century;  and  it  is  also  matter  of  certainty  that 
they  were  known  in  England  at  a  still  earlier  period. 
Henry  VIII.  had  "4  shirte-bands  of  silver  with  ruffes  to 
the  same,  whereof  one  was  perled  with  golde  :  "  and  in 
1658  Peacham  observed,  "  King  Henry  VIII.  was  the 
first  that  ever  wore  a  band  about  his  neck,  and  that  very 
plain,  without  lace,  and  about  an  inch  or  two  in  depth. 
We  may  see  how  the  case  is  altered,  he  is  not  a  gentle- 
man, or  in  the  fashion,  whose  band  of  Italian  cutwork 
standeth  him  not  at  the  least  in  three  or  four  pounds; 
yea,  a  sempster  in  Holbcrn  told  me  there  are  of  three- 
score pound  price  a-piece."  That  the  fops  of  Charles  I.'s 
reign  were  spending  money  on  a  fashion  originally  set  by 
King  Henry  the  BluiT  was  the  opinion  also  of  Taylor  the 
Water  Poet,  who  in  1630  wrote — 

"  Now  up  alofte  I  mount  unto  the  ruffe, 
Which  into  foolish  mortals  pride  doth  pnffe  : 
Yet  ruffe>'  antiquity  is  here  but  smnll — 
Within  this  eighty  years  not  one  at  all  ; 
For  the  Eighth  Henry  (so  I  understand) 


3,0  PLEASANTRIES     OF    ENGLISH 

Was  the  first  king  that  ever  wore  a  band, 
And  but  a.  falling-hand,  plaine  with  a  hem  ; 
All  other  people  knew  no  use  of  them. 
Yet  imitation  in  small  time  began 
To  grow,  that  it  the  kingdom  overran  ; 
The  little  falling-liands  encreased  to  ruffes, 
Ruffes  (growing  great)  were  waited  on  by  cuffes. 
And  though  our  frailties  should  awake  our  care. 
We  make  our  ruffes  as  careless  as  we  are." 

In  regarding  the  falling-band  as  the  germ  of  the  ruff, 
the  Water  Poet  differs  from  those  writers  who,  with 
greater  appearance  of  reason,  maintain  that  the  ruff  was 
the  parent  of  the  band.  Into  this  question  concerning 
origin  of  species,  there  is  no  occasion  to  enter  on  the 
present  occasion  ;  it  is  enough  to  state  that  in  the  earlier 
part  of  the  seventeenth  century  bands  or  collars — bands 
stiffened  and  standing  at  the  backward  part,  and  bands 
falling  upon  the  shoulder  and  breast — were  articles  of 
costume  upon  which  men  of  expensive  and  modish 
liabits  spent  large  sums. 

In  the  day's  of  James  I.,  when  standing  bands  were 
still  the  fashion,  and  falling  bands  had  not  come  in,  the 
Inns  of  Court  men  were  very  particular  about  the  stiff- 
ness, cut,  and  texture  of  their  collars.  Speaking  of  the 
Inns  of  Court  men,  Sir  Thomas  Overbury  (who  was 
poisoned  in  i6i3)says,  "  He  laughs  at  every  man  whose 
band  sits  not  well,  or  that  hath  not  a  fair  shoe-tye,  and 
is  ashamed  to  be  in  any  man's  company  who  wears  not 
his  cloathes  well." 

If  portraits  maybe  trusted,  the  falling  band  of  Charles 
I.'s  time  bore  considerable  resemblance  to  the  falling 
neck-frill  which  twenty  years  since  was  very  generally 
worn  by  quite  little  boys,  and  is  still  sometimes  seen  on 
urchins  who  are  about  six  years  of  age.  The  bands  worn 
by  the  barristers  and  clergy  of  our  own  times  are  modi- 
fications of  this  antique  falling-band,  and  like  the  coif 
cap  of  the  modern  sergeant,  they  bear  only  a  faint  like- 
ness to  their  oViin'nals.      But  though  bands — longer  than 


COURTS    AND     LAWYERS.  301 

those  still  worn  by  clergymen — have  come  to  be  a  dis- 
tinctive feature  of  legal  costume,  the  bar  was  slow  to 
adopt  falling-collars — regarding  them  as  a  strange  and 
fanciful  innovation.  Whitelock's  personal  narrative  fur- 
nishes pleasant  testimony  that  the  younger  gentry  of 
Charles  I.'s  England  adopted  the  new  collar  before  the 
working  lawyers. 

"At  the  Quarter  Sessions  of  Oxford,"  says  Whitelock, 
speaking  of  the  year  1635,  when  he  was  only  thirty  years 
of  age,  '  I  was  put  into  the  chair  in  court,  though  I  was 
in  colored  clothes,  a  sword  by  my  side,  and  a  falling- 
band,  which  was  unusual  for  lawyers  in  those  days,  and 
in  this  garb  I  gave  the  charge  to  the  Grand  Jury.  I 
took  occasion  to  enlarge  on  the  point  of  jurisdiction  in 
the  temporal  courts  in  matters  ecclesiastical,  and  the 
antiquity  thereof,  which  I  did  the  rather  because  the 
spiritual  men  began  in  those  days  to  swell  higher  than 
ordinary,  and  to  take  it  as  an  injury  to  the  Church  that 
anything  savoring  of  the  spirituality  should  be  within 
the  cognizance  of  ignorant  laymen.  The  gentlemen  and 
freeholders  seemed  well  pleased  with  my  charge,  and  the 
management  of  the  business  of  the  sessions;  and  said 
they  perceived  one  might  speak  as  good  sense  in  a  falling- 
band  as  in  a  ruff."  At  this  time  Whitelock  had  been 
about  seven  years  at  the  bar;  but  at  the  Quarter  Ses- 
sions the  young  Templar  was  playing  the  part  of  country 
squire,  and  as  his  words  show,  he  was  dressed  in  a  fashion 
that  directly  violated  professional  usage. 

Whitelock's  speech  seems  to  have  been  made  shortly 
before  the  bar  accepted  the  falling-band  as  an  article  of 
dress  admissible  in  courts  of  law.  Towards  the  close  of 
Charles's  reign,  such  bands  were  very  generally  worn  in 
Westminster  Hall  by  the  gentlemen  of  the  long  robe; 
and  after  the  Restoration,  a  barrister  would  as  soon  have 
thought  of  appearing  at  the    King's   Bench   without   his 


302  PLEASANTRIES     OF     ENGLISH 

gown  as  without  his  band.  Unlike  the  bar-bands  of  the 
present  time — which  are  lappets  of  fine  lawn,  of  simple 
make — the  bands  worn  by  Charles  II.'s  lawyers  were 
dainty  and  expensive  articles,  such  as  those  which 
Peacham  exclaimed  against  in  the  preceding  reign.  At 
that  date  the  Templar  in  prosperous  circumstances  had 
his  bands  made  entirely  of  point  lace,  or  of  fine  lawn 
edged  with  point  lace  ;  and  as  he  wore  them  in  society 
as  well  as  in  court,  he  was  constantly  requiring  a  fresh 
supply  of  them.  Few  accidents  were  more  likely  to  ruffle 
a  Templar's  equanimity  than  a  mishap  to  his  band 
occurring  through  his  own  inadvertence,  or  carelessness 
on  the  part  of  a  servant.  At  table  the  pieces  of  delicate 
lace-work  were  exposed  to  many  dangers.  Continually 
were  they  stained  with  wine  or  soiled  with  gravy,  and 
the  young  lawyer  was  deemed  a  marvel  of  amiability 
who  could  see  his  point  lace  thus  defiled  and  abstain 
from  swearing.  "  I  remember,"  observes  Roger  North, 
when  he  is  showing  the  perfect  control  in  which  his 
brother  Francis  kept  his  temper,  "  At  his  table  a  stupid 
servant  spilt  a  glass  of  red  wine  upon  his  point  band 
and  clothes.  He  only  wiped  his  face  and  clothes  with 
the  napkin,  and  '  Here,'  said  he,  'take  this  away;'  and 
no  more." 

In  "  The  London  Sp\-,"  Ned  Ward  shows  that  during 
Queen  Anne's  reign  legal  practitioners  of  the  lowest  sort 
were  particular  to  wear  bands.  Describing  the  pettifogger, 
Ward  says,  "He  always  talks  with  as  great  assurance  as 
if  he  understood  what  he  pretends  to  knov/  ;  and  always 
wears  a  band,  in  which  lies  his  gravity  and  wisdom."  At 
the  same  period  a  brisk  trade  was  carried  on  in  West- 
minster Hall  by  the  seamstresses  who  manufactured 
bands  and  cuffs,  lac-.-  ruffles,  and  lawn  kerchiefs  for  the 
grave  counselors  and  yoang  gallants  of  the  Inns  of 
Court.     "  From  thence,"  says  the  author  of  "The   Lon- 


COURTS    AND    LAWYERS.  303 

don  Spy,"  "  we  walked  down  by  the  sempstresses,  who 
were  very  nicely  digitising  and  pleating  turnsovers  and 
ruffles  for  the  young  students,  and  coaxing  them  with 
amorous  looks,  obliging  cant,  and  inviting  gestures,  to 
give  so  extravagant  a  price  for  what  they  buy." 

From  collars  of  lace  and  lawn,  let  us  turn  to  collars  of 
precious  metal. 

Antiquarians  have  unanimously  rejected  the  fanciful 
legend  adopted  by  Dugdale  concerning  the  SS  collar,  as 
well  as  many  not  less  ingenious  interpretations  of  the 
mystic  letters  ;  and  at  the  present  time  it  is  almost 
unanimously  settled  that  the  SS  collar  is  the  old  Lancas- 
trian badge,  corresponding  to  the  Yorkist  collar  of  Roses 
and  Suns,  and  that  the  S  is  either  the  initial  of  the  senti- 
mental word  "Souvenez,"  or,  as  Mr.  Beltz  maintains,  the 
initial  letter  of  the  sentimental  motto,  "  Souvenez-vous 
de  moi."  In  Mr.  Foss's  valuable  work,  "  The  Judges  of 
England,"  at  the  commencement  of  the  seventh  volume, 
the  curious  reader  may  find  an  excellent  summary  of  all 
that  has  been  or  can  be  said  about  the  origin  of  this 
piece  of  feudal  livery,  which,  having  at  one  time  been 
very  generally  assumed  by  all  gentle  and  fairly  prosper- 
ous partisans  of  the  House  of  Lancaster,  has  for  many 
generations  been  the  distinctive  badge  of  a  few  official 
persons.  In  the  second  year  of  Henry  IV.  an  ordinance 
forbade  knights  and  esquires  to  wear  the  collar,  save  in 
the  king's  presence;  and  in  the  reign  of  Henry  VHI., 
the  privilege  of  wearing  the  collar  was  taken  away  from 
simple  esquires  by  the  "  Acte  for  Reformacyon  of  Ex- 
cesse  in  Apparayle,"  24  Henry  VIII.  c.  13,  which  or- 
dained "  That  no  man  oneless  he  be  a  knight 
weare  any  color  of  Gold,  named  a  color  of  S."  Grad- 
ually knights  and  non-official  persons  relinquished  the 
decoration  ;  and  in  our  own  day  the  right  to  bear  it  is 
restricted   to  the   two   Chief  Justices,  the    Chief  Baron, 


304  PLEASANTRIES     OF     ENGLISH 

tlic  serc^eant-trumpeter,  and  all  the  officers  of  the 
Heralds'  College,  pursuivants  excepted  ;  "  unless, "  adds 
j\Ir.  Foss,  "  the  Lord  Mayor  of  London  is  to  be  in- 
cluded, whose  collar  is  somewhat  similar,  and  is  com- 
posed of  twenty-eight  SS,  fourteen  roses,  thirteen  knots, 
and  measures  sixty-four  inches." 


CHAPTER    XL. 


ON  the  stages  of  the  Caroline  theaters  the  lawyer  is 
found  with  a  green  bag  in  his  hand  ;  the  same  is 
the  case  in  the  literature  of  Queen  Anne's  reign;  and 
until  a  comparatively  recent  date  green  bags  were  gener- 
ally carried  in  Westminster  Hall  and  in  provincial  courts 
by  the  great  body  of  legal  practitioners.  From  Wycherly's 
"  Plain  Dealer,"  it  appears  that  in  the  time  of  Charles  H. 
angry  clients  were  accustomed  to  revile  their  lawyers  as 
"  ereen  bag-carriers."  When  the  litigious  Widow  Black- 
acre  upbraids  the  barrister  who  declines  to  argue  for  her, 
she  e.xclaims — "  Lnpertinent  again,  and  ignorant  to  me! 
Gadsboddikins  !  \'ou  puny  upstart  in  the  law,  to  use  me 
so,  you  green-bag  carrier,  you  murderer  of  unfortunate 
causes,  the  clerk's  ink  is  scarce  off  of  your  fingers."  In 
the  same  drama,  making  much  play  with  the  green  bag, 
W\'chcrley  indicates  the  Widow  Blackacre's  quarrelsome 
disposition  by  decorating  her  with  an  enormous  green 
reticule,  and  makes  her  son,  the  law-student,  sta;,;^ger 
about  the  stage  in  a  gown,  and  under  a  hea\'y  burden  of 
green  bags. 

So  also  in  the  time  of  Queen  Anne,  to  say  that  a  man 
intended  to  carry  a  green  bag,  was  the  same  as  saying 
that  he  meant  to  adopt  the  law  as  a  profession.  In  Dr. 
Arbuthnot's  "  History  of  John  Bull,"  the  prevelance  of 


COURTS    AND    LAWYERS.  305 

the  phrase  is  shown  by  the  passage,  "  I  am  told,  Cousin 
Diego,  you  are  one  of  those  tliat  have  undertaken  to 
manage  me,  and  that  you  have  said  you  will  carry  a 
green  bag  yourself,  rather  than  we  shall  make  an  end  of 
our  lawsuit.  I'll  teach  them  and  you  too  to  manage." 
It  must,  however,  be  borne  in  mind  that  in  Queen  Anne's 
time  green  bags,  like  white  bands,  were  as  generally 
adopted  by  solicitors  and  attorneys,  as  by  members  of 
the  bar.  In  his  "character  of  a  pettifogger"  the  author 
of  "  The  London  Spy  "  observes — "  His  learning  is  com- 
monly as  little  as  his  honesty,  and  his  conscience  much 
larger  than  his  green  bag." 

Some  years  have  elapsed  since  green  bags  altogether 
disappeared  from  our  courts  of  law;  but  the  exact  date  of 
their  disappearance  has  hitherto  escaped  the  vigilance  and 
research  of  Colonel  Landman,  "  Causidicus,"  and  other 
writers  who  in  the  pages  of  that  useful  and  very  enter- 
taining publication.  Notes  and  Queries,  have  asked  for 
information  on  that  point  and  kindred  questions.  Evi- 
dence sets  aside  the  suggestion  that  the  color  of  the 
lawyer's  bag  was  changed  from  green  to  red  because  the 
proceedings  at  Queen  Caroline's  trial  rendered  green 
bags  odious  to  the  public,  and  even  dangerous  to  their 
bearers  ;  for  it  is  a  matter  of  certainty  that  the  leaders 
of  the  Chancery  and  Common-Law  bars  carried  red  bags 
at  a  time  considerably  anterior  to  the  inquiry  into  the 
queen's  conduct. 

In  a  letter  addressed  to  the  editor  of  Notes  and  Queries, 
a  writer  who  signs  himself  "Causidicus,"  observes — 
"When  I  entered  the  profession  (about  fifty  years  ago) 
no  junior  barrister  presumed  to  carry  a  bag  in  the  Court 
of  Chancer)-,  unless  one  had  been  presented  to  liim  by 
a  King's  Counsel;  who,  when  a  junior  was  advancing  in 
practice,  took  an  opportunity  of  complimenting  him  ow 
his  increase  of  business,  and  giving  him   his  own   bag  to 


30  6  PLEASANTRIES    OF    ENGLISH 

carry  home  his  papers.  It  was  then  a  distinction  to  carry 
a  bai:^,  and  a  proof  that  a  junior  was  rising  in  his  pro- 
fession. I  do  not  know  whether  the  custom  prevailed  in 
other  courts."  From  this  it  appears  that  fifty  years  since 
the  bag  was  an  honorable  distinction  at  the  Chancery 
bar,  giving  its  bearer  some  such  professional  status  as 
that  which  is  conferred  by  "  silk  "  in  tliese  days  when 
Queen's  Counsel  are  numerous. 

The  same  professional  usage  seems  to  have  prevailed 
at  the  Common-Law  bar  more  than  eighty  years  ago; 
for  in  1780,  when  Edward  Law  joined  the  Northern  Cir- 
cuit, and  forthwith  received  a  large  number  of  briefs,  he 
was  complimented  by  Wallace  on  his  success,  and  pre- 
sented with  a  bag.  Lord  Campbell  asserts  that  no  case 
had  ever  before  occurred  where  a  junior  won  the  dis- 
tinction of  a  bag  during  the  course  of  his  first  circuit. 
There  is  no  record  of  the  date  when  members  of  the 
junior  bar  received  permission  to  carry  bags  according 
to  their  own  pleasure  ;  it  is  even  matter  of  doubt  whether 
the  permission  was  ever  expressly  accorded  by  the  leaders 
of  the  profession — or  v/hether  the  old  restrictive  usage 
died  a  gradual  and  unnoticed  death.  The  present  v\riter, 
however,  is  assured  that  at  the  Chancery  Bar,  long  after 
rt// juniors  were  allowed  to  carry  bags,  etiquette  forbade 
tiiem  to  adopt  bags  of  the  same  color  as  tliose  carried 
by  their  leaders.  An  eminent  Queen's  Counsel,  who  is 
a  member  of  that  bar,  remembers  that  when  he  first 
donned  a  stuff  gown,  he,  like  all  Chancery  juniors,  had  a 
purple  bag — whereas  the  wearers  of  silk  at  the  same 
period,  without   exception,  carried  red  bags. 

Before  a  complete  and  satisfactoy  account  can  be 
giv'of.i  of  the  use  of  bags  b)^  lawyers  as  badges  of  honor 
and  marks  of  distinction,  answers  must  be  found  foi 
several  questions  which  at  present  remain  open  to  dis- 
cussion.    So  late  as  Queen  Anne's  reign,  lawyers  of  the 


COURTS    AND     LAWYERS.  307 

lowest  standing,  whether  advocates  or  attorneys,  were 
permitted  to  carry  bags ; — a  right  which  the  junior 
bar  appears  to  have  lost  when  Edward  Law  joined  the 
Northern  Circuit.  At  what  date  between  Queen  Anne's 
day  and  l78o(the  year  in  which  Lord  Ellenborough  made 
his  debut  in  the  North),  was- this  change  effected  ?  Was 
the  change  gradual  or  sudden  ?  To  what  cause  was  it 
due  ?  Again,  is  it  possible  that  Lord  Campbell  and 
Causidicus  wrote  under  a  misapprehension,  when  they 
gave  testimony  concerning  the  usages  of  the  bar  with  re- 
gard to  bags,  at  the  close  of  the  last  and  the  beginning  of 
the  present  century  ?  The  memory  of  the  distinguished 
Queen's  Counsel,  to  whom  allusion  is  made  in  the  pre- 
ceding paragraph,  is  quite  clear  that  in  his  student  days 
Chancery  juniors  were  forbidden  by  etiquette  to  carry 
r<f^  bags,  but  were  permitted  to  carry  blue  bags;  and  he 
is  strongly  of  opinion  that  the  restriction  to  which  Lord 
Campbell  and  Causidicus  draw  attention,  did  not  apply 
at  any  time  to  blue  bags,  but  only  concerned  red  bags, 
which,  so  late  as  thirty  years  since,  unquestionably  were 
the  distinguishing  marks  of  men  in  leading  Chancery 
practice.  Perhaps  legal  readers  of  this  chapter  will 
favor  the  writer  with  further  information  on  this  not 
highly  important,  but  still  not  altogether  uninteresting 
subject. 

The  liberality  which  for  the  last  five-and-twenty  years 
has  marked  the  distribution  of  "  silk  "  to  rising  members 
of  the  bar,  and  the  ease  with  which  all  fairly  successful 
advocates  may  obtain  the  rank  of  Queen's  Counsel,  enable 
lawyers  of  the  present  generation  to  smile  at  a  rule 
wiiich  defined  a  man's  profjssional  position  b)'  the  color 
of  his  bag,  instead  of  the  texture  of  his  gown  ;  but  in 
times  when  "  silk  "  was  given  to  comparatively  few  mem- 
bers of  the  bar,  and  when  that  distinction  was  most  un- 
fairly withheld   from    the  brightest    ornaments  of   their 


3oS  PLEASANTRIES     OF    ENGLISH 

profession,  if  their  political  opinions  displeased  tlie 
"  party  in  power,"  it  was  natural  and  reasonable  in  the 
bar  to  institute  for  themselves  an  '*  order  of  merit  " — 
to  which  deserving  candidates  could  obtain  admission 
without  reference  to  the  prejudices  of  a  Chancellor  or 
the  whims  of  a  clique. 

At  present  the  sovereign's  counsel  learned  in  the  law 
constitute  a  distinct  order  of  the  profession  ;  but  until 
the  reign  of  William  IV.  they  were  merely  a  handful  of 
court  favorites.  In  most  cases  they  were  sound  lawyers  in 
full  employment  ;  but  the  immediate  cause  of  their  eleva- 
tion was  almost  always  some  political  consideration — and 
sometimes  the  lucky  wearer  of  a  silk  gown  had  won  the 
right  to  put  K.  C.  or  Q.  C.  after  his  name  by  base  com- 
pliance with  ministerial  power.  That  our  earlier  King's 
Counsel  were  not  created  from  the  purest  motives,  or  for 
the  most  honorable  purposes,  will  be  readily  admitted 
by  the  reader  who  reflects  that  "  silk  gowns  "  are  a  legal 
species,  for  which  the  nation  is  indebted  to  the  Stuarts. 
For  all  practical  purposes  Francis  Bacon  was  a  Q.  C. 
during  the  reign  of  Queen  Elizabeth.  He  enjoyed  pecu- 
liar and  distinctive  status  as  a  barrister,  being  consulted 
on  legal  matters  by  the  Queen,  although  he  held  no 
place  that  in  familiar  parlance  would  entitle  him  to  rank 
with  her  Crown  Lawyers;  and  his  biographers  have 
agreed  to  call  him  Elizabeth's  counselor  learned  in  the 
law.  But  a  Q.  C.  holding  his  office  by  patent — that  is  to 
say,  a  Q.  C.  as  that  term  is  understood  at  the  present  time 
— Francis  Bacon  never  was.  On  the  accession,  however, 
of  James  I.,  he  received  his  formal  appointment  of  K.  C, 
the  new  monarch  having  seen  fit  to  recognize  the  la\v- 
yer's  claim  to  b-'  regarded  as  a  "special  counsel,"  or 
"  leanied  counsel  extraordinary."  Another  barrister  of 
the  same  period  who  obtained  the  same  distinction  was 
Sir  Henry  Montague,  who,   in  a  patent  granted  in   1608 


COURTS    AND     LAWYERS.  309 

to  the  two  Temples,  is  styled  "  one  of  our  counsel 
learned  in  the  law."  Thus  planted,  the  institution  of 
monarch's  special  counsel  was  for  many  generations  a 
tree  of  slow  growth.  Until  George  III.'s  reign  the 
number  of  monarch's  counsel,  living  and  practicing  at 
the  same  time,  was  never  large  ;  and  throughout  the 
long  period  of  that  king's  rule  the  fraternity  of  K.  C.'s 
never  assumed  the  magnitude  and  character  of  a  profes- 
sional order.  It  is  uncertain  what  was  the  greatest 
number  of  contemporaneous  K.  C.'s  during  the  Stuart 
dynasty  ;  but  there  is  no  doubt  that  from  the  arrival  of 
James  I.  to  the  flight  of  James  II.  there  was  no  period 
when  the  K.  C.'s  at  all  approached  the  sergeants  in 
names  and  influence.  In  Rymer's  "  Foedera  "  mention 
is  made  of  four  barristers  who  were  appointed  counselors 
to  Charles  I.,  one  of  whom.  Sir  John  Finch,  in  a  patent 
of  precedence  is  designated  "  King's  Counsel  ;  "  but  it  is 
not  improbable  that  the  royal  martyr  had  other  special 
counselors  whose  names  have  not  been  recorded.  At 
different  times  of  Charles  II. 's  reign,  there  were  created 
some  seventeen  K.  C.'s  and  seven  times  that  number  of 
sergeants.  James  II.  made  ten  K.  C.'s  ;  William  and 
Mary  appointed  eleven  special  counselors;  and  the  num- 
ber of  Q.  C.'s  appointed  by  Anne  was  ten.  The  names  of 
George  I.'s  learned  counsel  are  not  recorded  ;  the  list  of 
George  II. 's  K.  C.'s,  together  with  barristers  holding 
patents  of  precedence,  comprises  thirty  names  ;  George 
III.,  throughout  his  long  tenure  of  the  crown,  gave  "silk" 
with  or  without  the  title  of  K.  C,  to  ninety-three  barris- 
ters ;  George  IV.  to  twent)--six  ;  whereas  the  list  of  Wil- 
liam IV. 's  appointments  comprised  sixty-five  names,  and 
the  present  queen  has  conferred  the  rank  of  O.  C.  on 
about  two  hundred  advocates — the  law-list  for  1865 
mentioning  one  hundred  and  thirty-seven  barristers  who 
are  Q.  C.'s,  or  holders  of  patents  of  precedence  ;  and  only 


310  PLEASANTRIES    OF    ENGLISH 

twenty-eight  sergeants-at-la\v,  not  sitting  as  judges  in 
any  of  the  supreme  courts.  The  diminution  in  the  num- 
bers of  the  sergeants  is  due  partly  to  the  loss  of  their 
old  monopoly  of  business  in  the  Common  Pleas,  and 
partly — some  say,  chiefly — to  the  p'ofuseness  with  which 
silk  gowns,  with  0.  C.  rank  attached,  have  been  thrown 
to  the  bar  since  the  passing  of  the  Reform  Bill. 

Under  the  old  system  when  "  silk  "  was  less  bountifully 
bestowed,  eminent  barristers  not  only  led  their  circuits  in 
stuff;  but,  after  holding  office  as  legal  advisers  to  the 
crown  and  wearing  silk  gowns  while  they  so  acted  with 
their  political  friends,  they  sometimes  resumed  their  stuff 
gowns  and  places  "  outside  the  bar,"  on  descending  from 
official  eminence.  When  Charles  Yorke,  in  1763,  resigned 
the  post  of  Attorney-General,  he  returned  to  his  old 
place  in  court  without  the  bar,  clad  in  the  black  bomba- 
zine of  an  ordinary  barrister,  whereas  during  his  tenure 
of  office  he  had  worn  silk  and  sat  within  the  bar.  In  the 
same  manner  when  Dunning  resigned  the  Solicitor-Gen- 
eralship, in  1770,  he  reappeared  in  the  Court  of  King's 
Bench,  attired  in  stuff,  and  took  his  place  without  the  bar  ; 
but  as  soon  as  he  had  made  his  first  motion,  he  was  ad- 
dressed by  Lord  Mansfield,  who  with  characteristic  cour- 
tesy informed  him  that  he  should  take  precedence  in  that 
court  before  all  members  of  the  bar,  whatever  might  be 
their  standing,  with  the  exception  of  King's  Counsel,  Ser- 
geants, and  the  Recorder  of  London.  On  joining  the 
Northern  Circuit  in  1780,  Edward  Law  found  Wallace 
and  Lee  leading  in  silk,  and  twenty  years  later  he  and 
Jemmy  Park  were  the  K.  C.'s  of  the  same  district.  Of 
course  the  circuit  was  not  without  wearers  of  the  coif, 
one  of  its  learned  sergeants  being  Cockell  who,  before 
Law  obtained  the  leading  place,  was  known  as  "the 
Almighty  of  the  North  ;"  and  whose  success,  achieved 
in  spite  of  an  almost  total  ignorance  of  legal  science,  was 


COURTS    AND     LAWYERS.  311 

long  quoted  to  show  thnt  though  knowledge  is  power, 
power  may  be  won  without  knowledge. 

From  pure  dislike  of  the  thought  that  younger  men 
should  follow  closely  or  at  a  distance  in  his  steps  to  the 
highest  eminence  of  legal  success,  Lord  Eldon  was  dis- 
gracefully stingy  in  bestowing  honors  on  rising  barristers 
who  belonged  to  his  own  party  ;  but  his  injustice  and 
downright  oppression  to  brilliant  advocates  in  the  Whig 
ranks  merit  the  warmest  expressions  of  disapproval  and 
contempt.  The  most  notorious  sufferers  from  his  ran- 
corous intolerance  were  Henry  Brougham  and  Mr.  Den- 
man,  who,  having  worn  silk  gowns  as  Queen  Caroline's 
Attorney-General  and  Solicitor-General,  were  reduced 
to  stuff  attire  on  that  wretched  lady's  death. 

It  is  worthy  of  notice  that  in  old  times  when  silk  gowns 
were  few,  their  wearers  were  sometimes  very  young  men. 
From  the  days  of  Francis  North,  who  was  made  K.  C. 
before  he  was  a  barrister  of  seven  full  years'  standing, 
down  to  the  days  of  Eldon  who  obtained  silk  after  seven 
years'  service  in  stuff,  instances  could  be  cited  of  the 
rapidity  with  which  lucky  youngsters  rose  to  the  honors 
of  silk,  while  hard-worked  veterans  were  to  the  last  kept 
outside  the  bar.  Thurlow  was  called  to  the  bar  in  No- 
vember, 1754,  and  donned  silk  in  December,  1761.  Six 
years  had  not  elapsed  since  his  call  to  the  English  bar, 
when  Alexander  Wedderburn  was  entitled  to  put  the 
initials  K.  C.  after  his  name,  and  wrote  to  his  mother  in 
Scotland,  "  I  can't  very  well  explain  to  you  the  nature  ot 
my  preferment,  but  it  is  what  most  people  at  the  bar  are 
very  desirous  of,  and  yet  most  people  run  a  hazard  of 
losing  money  by  it.  I  can  scarcely  expect  any  advantage 
from  it  for  some  time  equal  to  what  I  give  up  ;  and, 
notwithstanding,  I  am  extremely  happy,  and  esteem  my- 
self very  fortunate  in  having  obtained  it."  Erskine's  silk 
was  won  with  even  greater  speed,  for  he  was  still  in  his 


3T3  PLEASANTRIES     OF    ENGLISH 

fifth  year  of  forensic  standing  when  lie  was  invited  within 
the  bar;  but  his  silk  gown  came  to  him  with  a  patent  oi 
precedence,  giving  him  the  status  without  the  title  of  a 
King's  Counsel. 

Bar  mourning  is  no  longer  a  feature  of  legal  costume 
in  England.  On  the  death  of  Charles  II.  members  of  the 
bar  donned  gowns  indicative  of  their  grief  for  the  national 
loss,  and  they  continued,  either  universally  or  in  a  large 
number  of  cases,  to  wear  those  woeful  habiliments  till 
1697,  wiien  Chief  Justice  Holt  ordered  all  barristers 
practicing  in  his  court  to  appear  "in  their  proper  gowns 
and  not  in  mourning  ones" — an  order  which,  according 
to  Narcissus  Luttrell,  compelled  the  bar  to  spend  ;^I5 
per  man.  From  this  it  may  be  inferred  that  (regard  be- 
ing had  to  change  in  value  of  money)  a  bar-gown  at  the 
close  of  the  seventeenth  century  cost  about  ten  times  as 
much  as  it  does  at  the  present  time. 


CHAPTER   XLI. 

NOT  less  famous  in  history  than  Bradshaw's  broao- 
brimmed  hat,  nor  less  graceful  than  Shaftesbury's 
jaunty  beaver,  nor  less  memorable  than  the  sailor's  tar- 
paulin, under  cover  of  which  Jeffreys  slunk  into  the  Red 
Cow,  Wapping,  nor  less  striking  than  the  black  cap  still 
worn  by  Justice  in  her  sternest  mood,  nor  less  fanciful 
than  the  cocked  hat  which  covered  Wedderburn's  pow- 
dered hair  when  he  daily  paced  the  High-street  of  Edin- 
burgh with  his  hands  in  a  muff — was  the  white  hat  which 
an  illustrious  Templar  invented  at  an  early  date  of  the 
eighteenth  centurw  Beau  Brummel's  original  mind 
taught  the  human  species  to  starch  their  white  cravats  : 
Richard  Nash,  having  surmounted    the   invidious  bar  o\ 


COURTS    AND    LAWYERS.  313 

plebeian  birth  and  raised  himself  upon  opposing  circum- 
stances to  the  throne  of  Bath,  produced  a  white  hat.  To 
which  of  these  great  men  society  owes  the  heavier  debt 
of  gratitude  thoughtful  historians  can  not  agree;  but 
even  envious  detraction  admits  that  they  deserve  liigh 
rank  among  the  benefactors  of  mankind.  Brummel  was 
a  soldier  ;  but  Law  proudly  claims  as  her  own  the  parent 
of  the  pale  and  spotless  chapean. 

About  lawyers' cocked  hats  a  capital  volume  might  be 
written,  that  should  contain  no  better  story  than  the  one 
which  is  told  of  Ned  Thurlow's  discomfiture,  in  1788, 
when  he  was  playing  a  trickster's  game  with  his  friends 
and  foes.  Windsor  Castle  just  then  contained  three  dis- 
tinct centers  of  public  interest — the  mad  king  in  the 
hands  of  his  keepers  ;  on  the  one  side  of  the  impotent 
monarch  the  Prince  of  Wales  waiting  impatiently  for  the 
Regency  ;  on  the  other  side,  the  queen  with  equal  im- 
patience longing  for  her  husband's  recovery.  The  prince 
and  his  mother  both  had  apartments  in  the  castle,  her 
majesty's  quarters  being  the  place  of  meeting  for  the 
Tory  ministers,  while  the  prince's  apartments  were  thrown 
open  to  the  select  leaders  of  the  Whig  expectants.  Of 
course  the  two  coteries  kept  jealously  apart ;  but  Thur- 
low,  who  wished  to  be  still  Lord  Chancellor,  "whatever 
king  might  reign,"  was  in  private  communication  with 
the  prince's  friends.  With  furtive  steps  he  passed  from 
the  queen's  room  (where  he  had  a  minute  before  been 
assuring  the  ministers  that  he  would  be  faithful  to  the 
king's  adherents),  and  made  clandestine  way  to  the  apart- 
ment where  Sheridan  and  Payne  were  meditating  on  the 
advantages  of  a  regency  without  restriction.  On  leaving 
the  prince,  the  wary  lawyer  used  to  steal  into  the  king's 
cliamber,  and  seek  guidance  or  encouragement  from  the 
madman's  restless  eyes.  Was  the  malady  curable  ?  If 
curable,  how  long  a  time  would  elapse  before  the  return 


314  PLEASANTRIES     OF    ENGLISH 

of  reason?  These  were  the  questions  which  the  Chaii- 
cellor  put  to  himself  as  he  debated  whether  he  should 
break  with  the  Tories  and  go  over  to  the  Whigs. 
Through  the  action  of  the  patient's  disease,  the  most 
delicate  part  of  the  lawyer's  occupation  was  gone  ;  and 
having  no  longer  a  king's  conscience  to  keep,  he  did  not 
care,  by  way  of  diversion — to  keep  his  own. 

For  many  days  ere  they  received  clear  demonstration 
of  the  Chancellor's  deceit,  the  other  members  of  the 
cabinet  suspected  that  he  was  acting  disingenuously,  and 
when  his  double-dealing  was  brought  to  their  sure  knowl- 
edge, their  indignation  was  not  even  qualified  with  sur- 
prise. The  story  of  his  exposure  is  told  in  various  ways  ; 
but  all  versions  concur  in  attributing  his  detection  to  an 
accident.  Like  the  gallant  of  the  French  court,  whose 
clandestine  intercourse  with  a  great  lady  was  discovered, 
because,  in  his  hurried  preparations  for  flight  from  her 
chamber,  he  appropriated  one  of  her  stockings,  Thurlow, 
according  to  one  account,  was  convicted  of  perfidy  by  the 
prince's  hat,  which  he  bore  under  his  arm  on  entering 
the  closet  where  the  ministers  awaited  his  coming. 
Another  version  says  that  Thurlow  had  taken  his  seat 
at  the  council-table,  when  his  hat  was  brought  to  him  by 
a  page,  with  an  explanation  that  he  had  left  it  in  the 
prince's  private  room.  A  third,  and  more  probable  rep- 
resentation of  the  affair,  instead  of  laying  the  scene  in 
the  council-chamber,  makes  the  exposure  occur  in  a 
more  public  part  of  the  castle.  "  When  a  council  was  to 
be  held  at  Windsor,"  said  the  Right  Honorable  Thomas 
Grenville,  in  his  old  age  recounting  the  particulars  of 
the  mishap,  "to  determine  the  course  which  ministers 
should  pursue,  Thurlow  had  been  there  some  time  before 
any  of  his  colleagues  arrived.  He  was  to  be  brought 
back  to  London  by  one  of  them,  and  the  moment  of  de- 
parture being  come,  the  Chancellor's  hat  was  nowhere 


COURTS    AND     LAWYERS.  315 

to  be  found.  After  a  fruitless  search  in  the  apartment 
where  the  council  had  been  held,  a  page  came  with  the 
hat  in  his  hand,  saying  aloud,  and  with  great  naivete, 
'  My  lord,  I  found  it  in  the  closet  of  his  Royal  Highness 
the  Prince  of  Wales.'  The  other  ministers  were  still  in 
the  Hall,  and  Thurlow's  confusion  corroborated  the  in- 
ference which  they  drew."  Can  not  an  artist  be  found 
to  place  upon  canvas  this  scene,  which  furnishes  the 
student  of  human  nature  with  an  instructive  instance  of 

"  That  combination  strange — a  lawyer  and  a  blush  ?  " 

For  some  days  Thurlow's  embarrassment  and  chagrin 
were  very  painful.  But  a  change  in  the  state  of  the 
king's  health  caused  a  renewal  of  the  lawyer's  attach- 
tachment  to  Tory  principles  and  to  his  sovereign. 

The  lawyers  of  what  may  be  termed  the  cocked  hat 
period  seldom  maintained  the  happy  mean  between  too 
little  and  too  great  care  for  personal  appearance.  For 
the  most  part  they  were  either  slovenly  or  foppish. 
From  the  days  when  as  a  student  he  used  to  slip  into 
Nando's  in  a  costume  that  raised  the  supercilious  astonish- 
ment of  his  contemporaries,  Thurlow  to  the  last  erred  on 
the  side  of  neglect.  Camden  roused  the  satire  of  an 
earlier  generation  by  the  miserable  condition  of  the  tie- 
wig  which  he  wore  on  the  bench  of  Chancery,  and  by  an 
undignified  and  provoking  habit  of  "  gartering  up  his 
stockings  while  counsel  were  the  most  strenuous  in  their 
eloquence."  On  the  other  hand  Joseph  Yates — the 
puisne  judge  whom  Mansfield's  jeers  and  merciless  oppres- 
sions drove  from  the  King's  Bench  to  the  Common 
Pleas,  where  he  died  within  four  months  of  his  retreat — 
was  the  finest  of  fine  gentlemen.  Before  he  had  demon- 
strated his  professional  capacity,  the  habitual  costliness 
and  delicacy  of  his  attire  roused  the  distrust  of  attor- 
neys,  and  on   more  than  one  occasion  wrought  him  in' 


3i6  PLEASANTRIES     OF    ENGLISH 

jury.  An  awkward,  crusty,  hard-featured  attorney  en- 
tered the  foppish  barrister's  chambers  with  a  bundle  of 
papers,  and  on  seeing  the  young  man  in  a  superb  and 
elaborate  evening  dress,  is  said  to  have  inquired,  *'  Can 
you  say,  sir,  when  Mr.  Yates  will  return  ?  "  "  Return, 
my  good  sir!"  answered  the  barrister,  with  an  air  of 
surprise,  "  I  am  Mr.  Yates,  and  it  will  give  me  the 
greatest  pleasure  to  talk  with  you  about  those  papers." 
Having  taken  a  deliberate  survey  of  the  young  Templar, 
and  made  a  mental  inventory  of  all  the  fantastic  articles 
of  his  apparel,  the  honest  attorney  gave  an  omnious 
grunt,  replaced  the  papers  in  one  of  the  deep  pockets  of 
his  long-skirted  coat,  twice  nodded  his  head  with  con- 
temptuous significance,  and  then,  without  another  word 
walked  out  of  the  room.  It  was  his  first  visit  to  those 
chambers,  and  his  last.  Joseph  Yates  lost  his  client,  be- 
fore he  could  even  learn  his  name  ;  but  in  no  way  in- 
fluenced by  the  occurrence  he  maintained  his  reputation 
for  faultless  taste  in  dress,  and  when  he  had  raised  him- 
self to  the  bench,  he  was  among  the  judges  of  his  day 
all  that  Revell  Reynolds  was  among  the  London  physi- 
cians of  a  later  date. 

Living  in  the  midst  of  the  fierce  contentions  which 
distracted  Ireland  in  the  days  of  our  grandfathers,  John 
Toler,  first  Earl  of  Norbury,  would  not  have  escaped 
odium  and  evil  repute,  had  he  been  a  merciful  man  and 
a  scrupulous  judge;  but  in  consequence  of  failings  and 
wicked  propensities,  which  gave  countenance  to  the 
slanders  of  his  enemies  and  at  the  same  time  earned  for 
him  the  distrust  and  aversion  of  his  political  coadjutors, 
he  has  found  countless  accusers  and  not  a  single  vindica- 
tor. Resembling  George  Jeffreys  in  temper  and  mental 
capacity,  he  resembled  him  also  in  posthumous  fame. 
A  shrewd,  selfish,  overbearing  man,  possessing  wit  which 
was  exercised  with  equal  promptitude  upon  friends  and 


COURTS    AND     LAWYERS.  317 

focb.  he  alternately  roused  the  terror  and  the  laughter 
of  his  audiences.  At  the  bar  and  in  the  Irish  House  of 
Commons  he  was  alike  notorious  as  jester  and  bully; 
but  he  was  a  courageous  bully,  and  to  the  last  was 
always  as  ready  to  fight  with  bullets  as  with  epigrams,  and 
though  his  humor  was  especially  suited  to  the  taste  and 
passions  of  the  rabble,  it  sometimes  conv^ulsed  with  mer- 
riment those  who  were  shocked  by  its  coarseness  and 
brutality.  Having  voted  for  the  abolition  of  the  Irish 
Parliament,  the  Right  Honorable  John  Towler  was  pre- 
pared to  justify  his  conduct  with  hair-triggers  or  sarcasms. 
To  the  men  who  questioned  his  patriotism  he  was  wont 
to  answer,  "  Name  any  hour  before  my  court  opens  to- 
morrow," but  to  the  patriotic  Irish  lady  who  loudly 
charged  him  in  a  crowded  drawing-room  with  having  sold 
his  country,  he  replied,  with  an  affectation  of  cordial  as- 
sent, "  Certainly,  madam,  I  have  sold  my  country.  It 
was  very  lucky  for  me  that  I  had  a  country  to  sell- -I 
wish  I  had  another."  On  the  bench  he  spared  neither 
counsel  nor  suitors,  neither  witnesses  nor  jurors.  When 
Daniel  O'Connell,  while  he  was  conducting  a  cause  in  the 
Irish  Court  of  Common  Pleas,  observed,  "  Pardon  me,  my 
lord,  I  am  afraid  your  lordship  does  not  apprehend  me  ;  " 
the  Chief  Justice  (alluding  to  a  scandalous  and  false  re- 
port that  O'Connell  had  avoided  a  dueT  by  surrendering 
himself  to  the  police)  retorted,  "  Pardon  me  2X^0  ;  no  one 
is  more  easily  apprehended  than  Mr.  O'Connell  " — (a 
pause — and  then  with  emphatic  slowness  of  utterance) — ■ 
"  whenever  he  wishes  to  be  apprehended."  It  is  said 
that  when  this  same  judge  passed  sentence  of  death  on 
Robert  Emmett,  he  paused  when  he  came  to  the  point 
where  it  is  usual  for  a  judge  to  add  in  conclusion,  "  And 
may  the  Lord  have  mercy  on  your  soul!"  and  regarded 
th.e  brave  young  man  with  searching  eyes.  For  a  minute 
there  was  an  awful  silence  in  the  court  :  the  bar  and  the 


3i8  PLEASANTRIES    OF    ENGLISH 

assembled  crowd  supposing  that  the  Chief  Justice  had 
paused  so  that  a  few  seconds  of  unbroken  stillness  might 
add  to  the  solemnity  of  his  last  words.  The  disgust  and 
indignation  of  the  spectators  were  beyond  the  power  of 
language,  when  they  saw  a  smile  of  brutal  sarcasm  steal 
over  the  face  of  the  Chief  Justice  as  he  rose  from  his  seat 
of  judgment  without  uttering  another  word. 

While  the  state  prosecutions  were  going  forward,  Lord 
Norbury  appeared  on  the  bench  in  a  costume  that  ac- 
corded ill  with  the  gravity  of  his  office.  The  weather 
was  intensely  hot ;  and  while  he  was  at  his  morning  toilet 
the  Chief  Justice  selected  from  his  wardrobe  the  dress 
which  was  most  suited  to  the  sultriness  of  the  air.  The 
garb  thus  selected  for  its  coolness  was  a  dress  which  his 
lordship  had  worn  at  a  masquerade  ball, and  consisted  of 
a  green  tabinet  coat  decorated  with  large  mother-of-pearl 
buttons,  a  waistcoat  of  yellow  relieved  by  black  stripes, 
and  buff  breeches.  When  he  first  entered  the  court,  and 
throughout  all  the  earlier  part  of  the  proceedings  against 
a  party  of  rebels,  his  judicial  robes  altogether  concealed 
this  grotesque  attire :  but  unfortunately  towards  the 
close  of  the  sultry  day's  work,  Lord  Norbury — oppressed 
by  the  stifling  atmosphere  of  the  court,  and  forgetting 
all  about  the  levity  as  well  as  the  lightness  of  his  inner 
raiment — threw  back  his  judicial  robe  and  displayed  the 
dress  which  several  persons  then  present  had  seen  him 
wear  at  Lady  Castlereagh's  ball.  Ere  the  spectators  re- 
covered from  their  first  surprise.  Lord  Norbury,  quite 
unconscious  of  his  indecorum,  had  begun  to  pass  sentence 
of  death  on  a  gang  of  prisoners,  speaking  to  them  in  a 
solemn  voice  that  contrasted  painfully  with  the  inappro- 
priateness  of  his  costume. 

In  the  following  bright  and  picturesque  sentence.  Dr. 
Dibdin  gives  a  life-like  portrait  of  Eskine,  whose  personal 
vanity  was  only  equaled  by  the  egotism  which  often  gave 


COURTS    AND     LAWYERS.  319 

piquancy  to  his  orations,  and  never  lessened  their  effect  , 
— "Cocked  hats  and  ruffles,  with  satin  small-clothes,  and 
silk  stockings,  at  this  time  constituted  the  usual  evening 
dress.  Erskine,  though  a  good  deal  shorter  than  his 
brethren,  somehow  always  seemed  to  take  the  lead  both 
in  pace  and  in  discourse,  and  shouts  of  laughter  would 
frequently  follow  his  dicta.  Among  the  surrounding 
promenaders,  he  and  the  one-armed  Mingay  seemed  to  be 
the  main  objects  of  attraction.  Towards  evening,  it  was 
the  fashion  for  the  leading  counsel  to  promenade  during 
the  summer  in  the  Temple  Gardens,  and  I  usually  formed 
one  in  the  thronging  mall  of  loungers  and  spectators.  I 
had  analyzed  Blackstone,  and  wished  to  publish  it  under 
a  dedication  to  Mr.  Erskine.  Having  requested  the  favor 
of  an  interview,  he  received  me  graciously  at  breakfast 
before  nine,  attired  in  the  smart  dress  of  the  times,  a 
dark  green  coat,  scarlet  waistcoat,  and  silk  breeches. 
He  left  his  coffee,  stood  the  whole  time  looking  at  the 
chart  I  had  had  cut  in  copper,  and  appeared  much  grati- 
fied. On  leaving  him  a  chariot-and-four  drew  up  to  wheel 
him  to  some  provincial  town  on  a  special  retainer.  He  was 
then  coining  money  as  fast  as  his  chariot  wheels  rolled 
along."  Erskine's  advocacy  was  marked  by  that  attention 
to  trifles  which  has  often  contributed  to  the  success  of  dis- 
tinguished artists.  His  special  retainers  frequently  took 
him  to  parts  of  the  country  where  he  was  a  stranger,  and 
required  him  to  make  eloquent  speeches  in  courts  which 
his  voice  had  never  tested.  It  was  his  custom  on  reaching 
the  town  where  he  would  have  to  plead  on  the  following 
day,  to  visit  the  court  overnight,  and  examine  its  arrange 
ments,  so  that  when  the  time  for  action  arrived  he  might 
address  the  jury  from  the  most  favorable  spot  in  the  cham- 
ber. He  was  a  theatrical  speaker,  and  omitted  no  pains 
to  secure  theatrical  effect.  It  was  noticed  that  he  never 
appeared  within  the  bar  until  the  cause  cdlibre  had  been 


320  PLEASANTRIES    OF    ENGLISH 

called  ;  and  a  buzz  of  excitement  and  anxious  expectation 
testified  the  eagerness  of  the  assembled  crowd  to  see,  as 
well  as  to  hear  the  celebrated  advocate.  Every  article  ot 
his  bar  costume  received  his  especial  consideration  ;  arti- 
fice could  be  discerned  in  the  modulations  of  his  voice, 
the  expressions  of  his  countenance,  and  the  movements 
of  his  entire  body;  but  the  coldest  observer  did  not  de- 
tect the  artifice  until  it  had  stirred  his  heart.  Rumor  un- 
justly asserted  that  he  never  uttered  an  impetuous  pero- 
ration which  he  had  not  frequently  rehearsed  in  private 
before  a  mirror.  About  the  cut  and  curls  of  his  wigs, 
their  texture  and  color,  he  was  very  particular;  and  the 
hands  which  he  extended  in  entreaty  towards  British 
juries  were  always  cased  in  lemon-colored  kid  gloves. 

Erskine  was  not  more  noticeable  for  the  foppishness 
of  his  dress  than  was  Lord  Kenyon  for  a  sordid  attire. 
While  he  was  a  leading  advocate  within  the  bar,  Lord 
Kenyon's  ordinary  costume  would  have  disgraced  a 
copying  clerk;  and  during  his  later  years  it  was  a  ques- 
tion among  barristers  whether  his  breeches  were  made  of 
velvet  or  leather.  The  wits  maintained  that  when  he 
kissed  hands  upon  his  elevation  to  the  Attorney's  place, 
he  went  to  court  in  a  second-hand  suit  purchased  from 
Lord  Stormont's  valet.  In  the  letter  attributed  to  him 
by  a  clever  writer  in  the  "  RoUiad  "  he  is  made  to  say — 
"  My  income  has  been  cruelly  estimated  at  seven,  or,  as 
some  will  have  it,  eight  thousand  pounds  per  annum.  I 
shall  save  myself  the  mortification  of  denying  that  lam 
rich,  and  referyou  to  the  constant  habits  and  whole  tenor 
of  my  life.  The  proof  to  my  friends  is  easy.  My  tailor's 
hill  for  the  last  fifteen  years  is  a  record  of  the  most  in- 
disputable authority.  Malicious  souls  may  direct  you, 
perhaps,  to  Lord  Stormont's  valet  de  chainbre,  and  can 
vouch  the  anecdote  that  on  the  day  when  I  kissed  hands 
for  my  appointment  to  the  office  of  Attorney-General,  I 


COURTS    AND    LAWYERS.  321 

appeared  in  a  laced  waistcoat  that  once  belonged  to  his 
master.  I  bought  the  waistcoat,  but  despise  the  insinu- 
ation ;  nor  is  this  the  only  instance  in  which  I  am 
obliged  to  diminish  my  wants  and  apportion  them  to  my 

very  limited  means.     Lady  K will  be  my  witness 

that  until  my  last  appointment  I  was  an  utter  stranger 
to  the  luxury  of  a  pocket-handkerchief."  The  pocket- 
handkerchief  which  then  came  into  his  possession  was 
supposed  to  have  been  found  in  the  pocket  of  the 
second-hand  waistcoat  ;  and  Jekyll  always  maintained 
that,  as  it  was  not  considered  in  the  purchase,  it  re- 
mained the  valet's  property,  atid  did  not  pass  into  the 
lawyer's  rightful  possession.  This  was  the  only  hand- 
kerchief which  Lord  Kenyon  is  said  to  have  ever  pos- 
sessed, and  Lord  EUenborough  alluded  to  it  when,  in  a 
conversation  that  turned  upon  the  economy  which  the 
income-tax  would  necessitate  in  all  ranks  of  life,  he 
observed — "  Lord  Kenyon,  who  is  not  very  nice,  intends 
to  meet  the  crisis  by  laying  down  his  handkerchief." 

Of  his  lordship's  way  of  getting  through  seasons  of 
catarrh  without  a  handkerchief,  there  are  several  stories 
that  would  scarcely  please  the  fastidious  readers  of  these 
volumes. 

Of  his  two  wigs  (one  considerably  less  worn  than  the 
other),  and  of  his  two  hats  (the  better  of  which  would  not 
have  greatly  disfigured  an  old  clothesman,  while  the 
worse  would  have  been  of  service  to  a  professional  scare- 
crow) Lord  Kenyon  took  jealous  care.  The  inferior  wig 
was  always  worn  with  the  better  hat,  and  the  more 
dilapidated  hat  with  the  superior  wig  ;  and  it  was  noticed 
that  when  he  appeared  in  court  with  the  shabbier  wig 
he  never  removed  his  chapeaii  ;  whereas,  on  the  days 
when  he  sat  in  his  more  decent  wig,  he  pushed  his  old 
cocked  hat  out  of  sight.  In  the  privacy  of  his  house 
and   in  his  carriage,  whenever  he  traveled  beyond  the 


7,2  2  COURTS  AND   LA  IV VERS. 

limits  of  town,  he  used  to  lay  aside  wig  and  hat,  and 
cover  his  head  with  an  old  red  night-cap.  Concern- 
ing his  great-coat,  the  original  blackness  of  which  had 
been  tempered  by  long  usage  into  a  fuscuous  green,  capi- 
tal tales  were  fabricated.  The  wits  could  not  spare  even 
his  shoes.  "  Once,"  Dr.  Dibdin  gravely  narrated,  "  in 
the  case  of  an  action  brought  for  the  non-fulfillment  of  a 
contract  on  a  large  scale  for  shoes,  the  question  mainly 
was,  whether  or  not  they  were  well  and  soundly  made 
and  with  the  best  materials.  A  number  of  witnesses 
were  called,  one  of  them,  a  first-rate  character  in  the 
gentle  craft,  being  closely  questioned,  returned  contra- 
dictory answers,  when  the  Chief  Justice  observed,  point- 
ing to  his  own  shoes,  which  were  regularly  bestridden  by 
the  broad  silver  buckle  of  the  day,  '  Were  the  shoes  any- 
thing like  these?'  '  No,  my  lord,'  replied  the  evidence, 
'  they  were  a  good  deal  better  and  more  genteeler.'  " 
Dr.  Dibdin  is  at  needless  pains  to  assure  his  readers  that 
the  shoemaker's  answer  was  followed  by  uproarious 
laughter. 


UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA  LIBRARY 

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